Sell Out
by MetaMirage
Summary: "You are something for me to mold and taint, a project if you will. A toy Sakura, that is all you are to me." SasuSaku. War. Darker themes.
1. Part I: Chapter I

**Disclaimer: 'Naruto' and 'Naruto Shippuden' is the works of Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

**Sell Out**

* * *

'_My friend; you would not tell with such high zest,  
To children ardent for some desperate glory,  
The old lie; dulce et decorum est  
pro-patria mori.'  
**-Wilfred Owen.**_

* * *

**Part I: Chapter I**

* * *

"_The third was a docile leader. He ruled with a gentle fist, always willing to reform instead of punish and we all witnessed the kindness in his heart. His biggest concern was peace…"  
_

**..._  
_**

**Konoha Defense strip**

Fight to the death.

He is winning.

He can't breathe, excruciating pain in shoulder and ankle like a slit-

"Now!"

Curse seal throbbing painfully-

"Move!"

But he is winning.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

Eyes widen.

Creature on all fours.

_Not human…_

Stunned.

Katana falls to the floor.

"We've got to-!"

Impaled by kunai.

"Shit!"

Comrade dead.

"Orochimaru-Sama for life!"

Runs forward.

Snarl.

Also dead.

_It's some kind of monster…_

Eyes flash red.

_It's chakra, that's not normal chakra! _

Monster moves with inhuman speed.

"RASENGAN!"

**...**

"_And it got him murdered."_

**...**

**8 years earlier**

Reflection.

The boy was his dark reflection. Sunshine blonde replaced with midnight black, sun kissed skin contrasting to pale like the moon. Both were as far away from each other as the stars, the black space in-between supposedly corrupting them in stigma.

War.

"I haven't seen you before…"

Today this defence strip promises more than bloodshed.

"That's because I don't live here."

He spoke cuttingly for an eight year old. It makes the other boy wonder what makes him so sure of himself.

"I don't live out here either."

His reply was lost to the light breeze that whipped the long wild grass of the clearing, nucleotide droplets seeping to the earth in eternal embrace. Blood continued to pulse, escaping through trauma to the skin.

"How come you're bleeding?"

His dark reflection moved forward, equal in age, height and a rounded childish face. The same tainted eyes because despite the fact they were standing together they were always very much alone.

…He didn't want to be alone.

"I... they... I run away here," he whispered head bowed revealing a shock of dirty blonde hair. Palms and knees filthy lacerated because he crawled to get away.

Cried and crawled.

"I'm a monster… a demon."

He was disgusting. They had always called him the disgrace of the village; the black heart, a plague on their beating lives. A fat tear plopped to the unhallowed ground. It's why the chased him.

"You're not a monster," was said a matter of fact.

He looked up instantly at the contradiction. It was out of this world. "I know monsters," was pushed "Trust me, you're nothing like one."

Blue eyes survey curiously. The boy across from him is stamped with Orochimaru but he still clings to the kind words, trying to makes sense of them. He comes to the conclusion the Otogakure uniform is very different from the Kohonagakure one.

They make them to fit children.

Civilian and soldier.

Leaf's most hated citizen and a Sound golden boy.

"Why… why aren't you trying to…?"

Hurt

Dismember

Kill

Destroy

"Why… aren't you fighting me?" pointing to the leaf symbol on his shirt because that was supposed to mean something, the same way he had stopped crying meant something.

Little frown.

"…You're not who I want to kill."

Silence at the oddity.

"Then who… who do you want to kill?"

"The North, The South, The East and The West," is said tiny fist shaking, dark fringe hiding his face. "_They_ are monsters believe me."

Onyx eyes lift. "You are not. If people hurt you they are the monsters."

Blink. It is the nicest thing said… ever. His heart… his black monstrous heart…

It was beating for the very first time.

A bloody hand is reached out hesitant.

"Will you be my friend?"

The Sound boy has the most unnaturally vacant face.

"My only friend?"

"…"

Hand is extended awkwardly as finger tips brush before palms grip slippery.

In a clearing outside of Kohona, beyond obligatory duty and detached from inbred hatred-

Two boys looked past the uniform.

And saw the reflection.

**...**

"_Orochimaru assassinated the Third. He wanted to strike fear into our hearts and weaken our resolve. People of Konoha he just strengthened it!"_

**...**

**Konoha Defense strip **

He can taste iron and every muscle in his body is slacking agony. His slow mind formulates a maybe from memory, the chaos from the battlefield deteriorating. This spot is awful familiar…

The monster is gone in a flash and it's over… its all over…

He loses the fight with gravity, body slumping to the floor. The last thing he sees; a flicker of the stars.

_I'm dying. _

It is curious and it is cold.

But mostly it is _still_ lonely.

**...**

"_Emotions bring hatred and hatred brings war. But Orochimaru's vile treachery I can not detach myself from."_

**...**

The world is spinning out of control in the dim silence of amnesia. He swallowed pushing back golden hair from now cerulean eyes as they darted frantically around the carnage.

Bodies everywhere. _Everywhere._ Burned into the back of his eyelids, on the soles of his boots, festered under his fingernails-

"Naruto we're moving out."

Naruto simply stared, mouth dry.

_Everywhere..._

"He's doing his remorse crap again, just leave him."

Naruto hears soldiers walking away as he remains stationary.

"It always blows over, then he's back to bouncing off the walls again."

"We're in a war. He needs to grow up."

"Demon fox."

Snide.

It was an insult and it stings but Naruto was used to being stung. Used to his demon power being induced but never remembering.

_Why... Why do I lose control more and more? _

He took a shaky step forward with a squelch. No doubt brains blew out... the innards.

That is when he saw him, arms out stretched with blood seeping through his torn white shirt and a gaping hole in his lower stomach. A ripple coursed through Naruto and his face fell in disruption.

He recognised that body. The boy looks even paler. Lips darkened with his own blood and hair clinging to his forehead with sweat.

Death… is slow… patient… waiting an age like bone. It is cut to ribbons, a fatal plummet in the cavity between his chest in a steady heaving.

It is the moment that everything changes.

**...**

"_And sworn brothers in arms, my comrades, we fight the fight! Side by side, shoulder to shoulder! We fight as citizens of our fair Konoha! We fight as equals! Under my decree, as your fifth, Hokage Danzo-"_

**...**

**The Village Hidden in the Leaves. **

The fading moonlight struck the window sill and a girl no older than sixteen tilted her tired head, her fair skin glowing and making her hair a more marvelous shade than usual in illumination. A picture of serenity she wondered why she always needed to check if the stars were out before she slept after a shift at the hospital.

_CRASH._

The girl shot to her feet in a panic as her door burst open. Her eyes widened staring at her best friend clad in Leaf uniform.

"Naruto?"

Then she dared to look to the body flung over his shoulders, trailing crimson blood on her rug. Ice ran through her veins and she began to shake.

"Help me," Naruto grunted. He himself was covered head to foot.

But it wasn't his blood.

He gave a sway because in a moment that was supposed to change everything nothing had really changed at all, not his memory or knowledge that this dying boy was his friend, his first friend.

And that meant everything.

"Oh god."

She moved forward instantly placing a trembling hand on the body.

Sound uniform.

Naruto yelped as there was a sickening _thud_.

"Sakura!"

**...**

"_I declare that the third ninja war is upon us!"_


	2. Part I: Chapter II

**Sell Out**

**Part I chapter II**

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"_Daddy! Daddy! Look! Oh no! Daddy!"  
_"…_It's a bird. It just flew straight into the window…"  
_"_Poor birdie! Quick daddy we have to help him no matter what! Please daddy…"_

**...**

**Streets of Konoha, 8 years earlier **

Tears rolled down to the chin in misery and shame.

"Such a big fat forehead! Sakura-_Chan_!"

It was. It really was. Why was she born with such a terribly wide forehead?

"What disgusting hair!"

Soft pink tresses where gripped and tugged at. She really just wanted to pull them out.

"Fight back crybaby! You never fight back!"

She was the most unfortunate person in the entire village. Sakura ran from the playground her tiny feet pattering on the Konoha district road.

She ran from the teasing.

_Why does everyone always pick on me? _

**Gates of the village hidden in the leaves**

She was so small she ran straight under the guard's watchful eye as fresh medical supplies rolled in.

**Konoha Defense Strip**

_Why am I so worthless? _

She stopped at all the bountiful wild flowers, vibrant colours and long stalks. They were beautiful. Why couldn't she be that beautiful?

_What is wrong with me? _

With shaky decided steps she made her way over, ignoring a freshly dug mound of dirt.

"WATCH OUT!"

The wind was knocked out of Sakura as she was tackled.

_KABOOM! _

There was a scream and an earth shattering explosion, flowers torn up and the majesty of the natural world ripped to the construct of human conflict. Protection however was above her shielding her from the onslaught.

When the first explosion was over, another began.

"We are in a war!" the blonde-haired, blue eyed (beautiful) child above her shouted distraught "what are you crazy?"

And it was the day that Sakura learned to believe in foul mouthed angels, for one had surely tumbled from the heavens to save her life as they stood dusting off three quarter length pants.

"What's your name?" Sakura implored to her angel bravely as they opened their wide talkative mouth.

**Sakura's house, present day. **

"Naruto…" Sakura whispered

Frantic panic. Sound soldier. Treason. Death by asphyxiation.

"He's the enemy."

Naruto dived to the floor next to something unimaginable, cupping the back of the head to ensure the neck wasn't snapped.

She couldn't breathe. "What are you doing?"

"I couldn't just leave him!" Naruto responded wiping the sweat from his brow, his blonde hair licked with sticky DNA and plasmids. "Sakura he's my friend!"

Friend…

Sakura felt herself shake, getting down.

Kohona and Sound were in a full blown war with no end in site. Casualties and deaths were riddled on both sides. Being a medic Sakura saw the effects everyday first hand. Good men dying in her arms at the hand of the enemy. _This _enemy_._

The black anger she possessed twisted, bought forth audible words "They raid our villages Naruto!"

"Is he alive?"

"They kill our-"

"Is he alive!" Naruto suddenly snarled and her eyes widened a fraction. Never had she heard him use that tone with her and in the inertia of the moment she reached out for a pale throat, searching for a pulse.

_Be dead you bastard _was her only innate thought.

There. It was _faintly_ beating.

"He's dead," Sakura deadpanned because soon the madness would be over. The cruel Oto soldier gone from the world he likened in his image. Her guilt tortured her looking to a rising and sinking chest.

"He's breathing!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed ignoring her. "Sakura-Chan you have to save him!"

The panic, the hope and the need in his voice…

There was no fighting it now.

Naruto had the biggest heart and maybe he wasn't from Sound. Maybe she had been hasty. Maybe he was undercover.

_Or maybe you just needed to start thinking whatever you need to start thinking to treat the guy. Fast._

"I need my kit."

Naruto with lightning speed landed beside her with her medical kit. "I think I hit him with my rasengan."

She cut the soldiers shirt open and grimaced at mess. How this guy was even still breathing she didn't know. She had seen people die from much less. "Pray you didn't hit any vitals."

"Sakura- Chan" was said strongly "I know you can do this."

Of course she could. But did she want too?

"What did you do to his shoulder?" she questioned. She searched for detail at the unnatural angle while pumping chakra into the stomach wound.

"He was already injured really badly."

Sakura nodded gritting her teeth. She tried to think of her energy not going to waste on someone undeserving as the skin messily repaired. She shut her eyes when her chakra began to feel scratchy at the dense, infused wound. Blood continued to flow to her fingertips and festered under her nails.

"Bandages."

They were handed to her and she swallowed knowing that applying pressure could be dangerous. She placed a hand under his back and lifted him as controlled as she could. Screw danger he wasn't a comrade or a friend of hers.

"Naruto keep him there."

"Right!"

She wound the bandages with precision and skill. Carefully they placed him back down and with a critical eye she decided they might have bought him a little more time.

Naruto's voice broke her from her analysis. "Sakura I have to go."

"What!" she cried her hands removing themselves from the patient instantly.

"I'm supposed to be in recon."

She shut her eyes. "We will be killed if they find out you did this Naruto, they will hang us from the gate with the other betrayers if we are caught protecting him!"

Naruto stood. His uniform boots were caked in mud and voice painstakingly resilient.

"Then we don't get caught," he stated before shutting the door, gone.

Sakura was left acting Sheppard to a boy lost in the steady and cold grip of death.

She wanted not to be the Sheppard but the executioner.

**...**

"_Don't let him die daddy."_

**...**

**4 years earlier **

"When will you finish it?" Sakura said in wonder and she almost couldn't believe they only needed two more signatures. She smiled as a loving hand tucked her rosette hair back while the other scooped up the precious treaty.

"Wars over Sakura," her father said confidently. This earned him a disapproving glare from his wife for getting everyone's hopes up but Sakura was not affected in the slightest. Her parent's were peace activists and the representatives of the Village of Konoha at the Fire country summit. They had been aids to the third himself and inspired compassion in those around them. A trucewas fast approaching.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for medical training Sakura?" was interrupted and Sakura snapped out of her daze.

"Oh right!"

**Street of Konoha**

"Sakura!" was greeted loudly and Uzumaki Naruto resisted the urge to shout again, desperate for her attention. Her face broke into an impossibly wide smile when she turned in his direction.

He blushed instantly before stiffening-

Because the impossibly beautiful Sakura was not (and never would be) smiling at him as she side stepped him breaking into a run.

"Ino-Chan!"

**...**

Sakura studied her street as rain lashed against her window. Sound soldiers blasted at the walls surrounding Konoha sending tiny vibrations through the pane of glass. Tunneling was futile in the rain. Water would rush down and drown men like rats. Sakura shut the thin curtains casting a look at the body sprawled at her feet. She resisted the urge to get her scalpel and out him like she should.

This soldier couldn't stay in the middle of the living room. Against better judgment she pumped him with chakra before dragging him across to the crawl space. His body was entirely limp and she watched his head jerk due to friction.

She swallowed coming to a stop staring around his injured shoulder.

_Sound doesn't have identification tags. They have tattoos… _

3 commas swirled at her and she covered her mouth getting down to her knees. A monster in her hospital had been branded with this. They were supposed to stabalize him for interrogation, a normal spineless Sound man.

He morphed just after her shift and became something that was only meant to terrorise unconscious sleep. She missed the transformation, only seeing a grotesque beast wander the halls, one of her superiors' heads in its grasp. The whole ward massacred. They had no choice but to barricade it in and wait.

She touched the seal and shivered. It was the result of direct contact with Orochimaru and had a 1 in 10 survival rate. This boy must be strong.

"Maybe you're just a sleeper agent," Sakura breathed, tucking his dark hair behind his ear. Orochimaru often contaminated Kohona's soldiers with the mark. They would turn on their comrades in cold blood and raw animalistic malice when triggered.

She touched his chapped lips with her thumb and stared was young, probably only a year older than her. He was also…

"They don't make them like you around here," she whispered. Even unconscious and thrashed he was possibly the most attractive boy she had ever seen. A godsend face in perfect symmetry, possessing such raw asexuality that even men would deem him beautiful.

She only said it because she wouldn't ever look at him that way again after her gut feeling was confirmed. His seemingly angelic looks had helped her care for him prior but her instincts told her the truth.

Because the heaven seal was not the tattoo she had been looking for.

She dug her knees into his back and he seemed to allow her to prop him up, she gripped his shoulder with her left and pumped more chakra into him mindlessly. She was draining herself so she could move him without fatality. It was doable but it took a hell of a lot of chakra and incentive.

She brushed the surprisingly soft hair at the nape of his neck to the side.

642231

His Sound defense forces serial number.

"Sound bastard," she hissed. His head tilted back into her sloppily when the pressure was gone. She hoped the stitching on his stomach was coming undone. He deserved to die.

"When Naruto forgets about you… I'll kill you with your own Katana… fair?"

He didn't respond and she sighed pulling him into the crawl space.

**...**

**Konoha Supplies Store, 7 years earlier.**

The sound of children laughing made heavy hearts lift, the two girls adorable in their antics. They couldn't help but smile as small fingers curled around standard ration chocolate bars.

They couldn't help but think this is what they were fighting for.

**The East Side**

"Oof!"

A girl with bubblegum pink hair blinked at the Suna refugee two years her junior. He had literally run into her almost knocking her off her feet. He looked apologetic before he set eyes to the chocolate bar in her hands licking his dry lips unconsciously. He hadn't tasted chocolate in so long...

Eyes softened it didn't even take a seconds thought.

"Here you go."

The chocolate was handed over promptly and eyes shone.

"R-really! Thank you!"

She gave a small nod before he ran away shyly. A small giggle had her looking up. Her cheeks turned a pink hue as half a chocolate bar was held out to her.

"I knew you couldn't resist."

And she always shared her rations with the Suna who didn't get any, gave up her water and even turned up home barefoot one day as her shoes ran around on another pair of happy feet.

"You're an angel Haruno Sakura," was said with an impossibly wide smile as Sakura gingerly took the offering "Don't fall like the rest of us."

**...**

_BANG_

_CRASH_

"Naruto!"

Naruto gave a sheepish grin as Sakura looked up at him from the floor. Sakura was furious at being knocked over but really it wasn't _his fault_ she insisted on being at the door when he was making his grand entrance.

"Heh I'm back."

Crisp look of contempt.

He extended his hand to the petite girl. She sighed before accepting his hand. She yearned for a Naruto proof door. She looked to the boy in question, the sleeves pulled up on his tight black shirt showing her his tanned arms glistening with the rain.

The door shut and the room doused in darkness. The strong smell of disinfected almost choked them and worry took no prisoners. Sakura spoke cuttingly-

"We need to get rid of him Naruto."

She mentally cursed his selective attention as he conveniently seemed not to hear her. He dropped his backpack to the floor and looking around "Where is he?"

"In the crawl space."

Eyes widened horrified. "He's in the what with the what now!"

"Naruto," she said urgently "keep it down." Anyone could overhear them.

"How could you!"

"I needed to hide him."

"How does he breathe?"

"Naruto-!"

"You're murdering him!"

She grabbed a hold of him and he seemed to calm at her touch but that didn't stop him from going over to the crawl space getting down on his knees. She buried her hand in her face as he looked back at her with a pout and why was she doing this? She sent him a death glare through her fingers that was surely enough to paralyse any man.

_You get me in a lot of trouble all the time Naruto. You always have. Why can't I say no to you? _She thought hazardously.

Naruto did not glare back and it was apparent _because you are my best friend Naruto. That is why. _

She gasped when he went to pull the soldier out by his ankles and there was a sickening _crack _Naruto recoiling.

"…His ankles broken."

Naruto bowed his head. She went over to him as he balled his hands into fists as if to blame them for the careless touch. She felt sympathy, but only for that sad look in his eyes.

"Okay help me fix this," she said softly. He became collected in an instant and carefully they pulled off the sound uniform to get to the ankle. It made him become more accessible to Sakura, more human. Then she set eyes on the injury and whimpered. The ankle was slowly caving to infection. It looked as if it had been hacked at one point, a nasty horizontal cut.

She shoved Naruto to the side and there was a flash of green.

"Wow Sakura-Chan…"

The infection was lessened no longer critical and the cut almost healed over, the bone just broken.

"Flash treatment," she replied bowing her head "I've been working on it."

"Nice…"

It takes a lot of chakra and control but she used it when a patient was facing something fatal and fast. His case had been threatening gangrene leading to amputation. She should have checked over him herself sooner. Guilt pitted her like a cyst but she only felt sorry for the mass chakra loss she faced.

She slumped to the side Naruto catching her instantly and she blinked hazily.

"Have you slept at all?" he said his voice laced with concern. Her eye cast to dishevelled dark haired madness.

_642231._

"How could I?" she whispered shaking Naruto off with a pseudo 'I'm fine' watching him go through the pockets of the pants and blinked at a small container holding a cyber black pill, shiny and glossed in a plastic cover.

"Suicide pill…?" she said uneasily her mind too tired to question why this person was important enough to be spared a painful death, a body corroding pill at that.

"Weird," Naruto breathed setting it down.

In her disorientation she lifted troubled eyes and it made Naruto's breathing catch. "Naruto we can't keep him... he's not some pet." Sakura uttered.

And he smiled. That daring brash smile that made her stomach knot "I didn't say he was."

"He can't stay in the middle of the living room…"

A reassuring hand on her shoulder had her eyes shutting."There is your parent's room…"

_She was running, she was screaming and the walls were tumbling down. Ninja darting every which way- _

"Sakura?"

_One foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other is all she could comprehend as her ear drums almost burst with an overhead explosion. She needed to get home. _

"Sakura… it's not like they're here anymore."

_Her parents- _

"Naruto," she said eyes snapping open and the hurt in her voice made him wince and want to hold her, but she was Hanuro Sakura his own personal ice queen and with good reason.

"That's not what I meant," he said giving her a smile that lit up his face spurring her to forgetfulness. Doubts seemed so wanton in his shining image and she knew the next thing he was going to say was truth.

"What I meant is that they wouldn't mind."

**...**

"_MUM! DAD! ARE YOU-?"  
_"…"  
"_No… please…"  
_"…"  
"_God no…"_


	3. Part I: Chapter III

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter III**

* * *

"_It was all you. When I think about a common thread, a tide in affairs to the most tragic moments of my life- that day I almost got my legs blown off, that time in the hospital and the raid with my parents…"_

**...**

**Three and a half years earlier**

The wreckage of her life was like seeing ghosts on the half shell. Violently surreal like she was dreaming but couldn't awaken; taking shaky steps towards the abyss she feared she would be swallowed whole. Her materialistic life… crockery shattered at her feet, carpet torn up, precious memories littered throughout.

And breaking into a run she refused to wake up in this nightmare.

Her house had been raided.

"MUM!"

It just didn't happen. You heard about it. The sons of the woman down the street lost to the gears of war, the blind husband of her superior at work. It was never all too real. It never happened to _you_.

"DAD!"

The bad guys never won. Not against Konoha, the greatest military might.

The treaty…

"MUM! DAD!"

Her parents, they were _good_ people. They just wanted peace.

A tear fell to the floor as she set eyes on the only living thing in this fallout. An angel perched- a girl crouched ninja style with an impossibly beautiful- dirty face, one lone crystal blue eye visible through her sweeping blonde fringe.

The pity in her face_…_

"No… please…"

Sakura sunk to the floor with crushing reality-

Her parents were gone, the treaty was gone and the war still raged.

She cried for the very last time into a gentle embrace, two girls coming up onto their knees clinging to each other tight.

"God no…"

**...**

"_You have always been there for me Ino."_

**...**

**Sakura's house**

Two blankets, a third on top, white pillow stained with blood.

Sound boy, licorice black hair in his deadbeat face; just visible in the darkness of the sliding wardrobe. In her parents abandoned but not forgotten bedroom.

_His_ blood, his vile insipid blood. A lackluster desire for him to become merely a stain for industrial washing machines to cleanse was over-mastering.

Sakura stared to the helpless boy- _Sound soldier_ before her, eyes dull and listless.

Hate filled.

Insanity seemed to be her best defense as she slammed the wardrobe shut and with glum determination straightened her appearance for another fifteen hour shift.

**...**

**Konoha**** Hospital****, Burn Victim Ward **

At sixteen Sakura wasn't allowed to leave the walls of the city to serve her medical skills front line. She needed permission before the age of eighteen from a parent or guardian. She had neither of those.

She'd been on for seventeen hours and wasn't showing yet. As far as everyone else was concerned she always looked tired. The most skilled of the interns always looked lacking. But she was sheer brilliance, reliable and overall dedicated. Sakura leaned over the front desk to be out the way. Guilt seemed to want to consume her, 642231.

She gave a jolt as a hand brushed her shoulder blades and a light "you still here?" was uttered. A painfully familiar girl with long blonde hair brushed past her.

Sakura however reluctant; urgently needed her, stomach twisting as she opened her mouth to-

Her hand was wrenched and she gave a gasp as she was pulled into an abandoned cubicle.

_Thud. _

The sound of a fist against makeshift wood had Sakura giving a sigh at the man before her.

"Damn it," he hissed voice laced with remorse, disheveling platinum coloured hair "I lost another one."

And her Sensei was still a man of incredible skill and she told him that. He chuckled lightly making her give a ghost of a smile.

"When are you going to stop calling me that?" was mused. Sakura gave a shrug.

"When you stop being one of the most influential people in my life," she said stiffening a little as he turned and placed his hand on her cheek.

"Sakura… you are exhausted."

She looked to the side as her hair was tucked behind her ear; he was always looking out for her.

And she was betraying him.

"Go home."

She feared looking in his eyes in case she would see her own guilty reflection.

"Yes Kabuto-Sensei."

She didn't see Kabuto give a grin, bearing all of his perfect white teeth as he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose.

**...**

**Sakura's house**

She didn't want to open the door to cruelty, she didn't want to get down on its level and she certainly didn't want to begin the arduous process of cleaning wounds.

But she did. In the reflection of the wardrobe mirror across from her was a stranger. She did all these life affirming things as she spread the liquid with feather touch on his abdomen, she couldn't separate the disgust she felt and how she was secretly praying he was permanently comatose.

"You're lucky;" she spoke decidedly "I am so close to Naruto."

Of course she was met with lovely silence as she began unwinding the bandages to change them. She looked critically to the stitching before pulling off her plastic gloves with a snap.

"Ne, you're going to be okay now, no more infection."

_Idle_ chitchat. She was master.

He was scratched all over and she noted some of that would have been from Naruto carrying him. The arm guards were bothering her but his left shoulder was so badly injured it would be a risk to remove them. She bit her lip thinking _morphine_. When he woke up he was going to be in thrashing agony. There was no helping it.

She shook going for the left arm guard before steadying her hand. She was in much too deep. Finally she got it off and cast herself a look in the mirror. She wondered if she looked any different because she certainly felt-

A hand shot to her throat and she stifled a scream, looked down in terror to see eyes as dark as oblivion unfocused.

The sound soldier didn't try to choke her. His hand moved hazily for her collar as he hissed in pain, tugging weakly. She tried not to feel to disappointed that he wasn't comatose.

"Where… where…?" he whispered croakily, his voice scratchy and grip weakening. Her panic descended as he suddenly looked softer.

"K-Karin?"

And he opened his mouth wide and it puzzled her as she stared at his teeth. _What is he doing... like a bite?_

"Ah…"

His eyes glazed over, head and hand falling back as he lost consciousness once more. She exhaled. People did weird things in last moments.

"Damn," she muttered pushing his dark hair back and re-correcting his arm position. "You've only been out for 56 hours… you needed to rest for longer before all this drama stuff."

She needed to tell Naruto he was awake…

**...**

**Outside Hospital**

Smoke clouds hung in the air as Sakura looked to the street apprehensively.

_Come on…_

Naruto wasn't coming down that street anytime soon and an amused chuckle had her looking to a man with a cancer stick wedged between his fingers.

"You are literally on your toes."

Sakura didn't move as Kabuto stood up coming over to her. She wondered bitterly if someone as trained as him could literally hear the erratic flutter of her heart.

"Any skeletons in your closet?" he pushed teasingly. That actually amused her.

_I wish. _

She settled back on the road, worry seeping back into her mind. She had the morphine and she needed Uzumaki Naruto to remind her why. To keep her stable in saving a life she honestly couldn't give a damn for.

"He's going to be alright you know," Kabuto said softer. "You know the demon f-"

"His name is Naruto," Sakura said. It came out more acidic than she intended. She reached for his cigarette to calm her nerves.

Dry amusement.

"You don't smoke."

She didn't do a lot of things.

**...**

**Sakura's house**

"Ah!"

She quickly slammed the door and ran to her parent's bedroom. He was cursed this boy from Sound as she opened the sliding door and he was _just_ coming to as if he knew she was coming back.

She watched his pain for a moment, brow knotted and eyes flickering trying to open.

"Where's… the squad," he spoke feverishly shaking his head from agony.

His choice of words threw her a little.

_Almost as if he _cares_. _

She was not one to beat around the bush as once again he had her stomach in contortions "You were ambushed."

_By Naruto's platoon, he told me everything. _

His eyes opened and tried to focus on her.

"A-ambushed…" he said confused sounding like a child at a loss, she watched as he struggled to breathe and tensed her mouth when he finally made the connection.

"No…" he moaned.

_They were all eradicated except you. _

He groaned and his eyes became half lidded when he felt so much stinging pain, his body sore and open. She readied the needle full of morphine.

"I…I did it…" he deluded as if that meant something more.

His next statement had the needle point stop inches from his flesh as ice ran through her veins.

"Tell Orochimaru…"

_Orochimaru _Sakura seethed. He was the epiphany of evil. He did so much human testing on POWs. He was sick, he was twisted.

And so were his soldiers.

"I memorized… the Leaf are planning to-"

He froze and fell silent when he focused on the coat hangers above his head, expression stuck.

Those did not belong in the infirmary.

She sighed as he looked to her slowly, barely calculating and waiting for her to confirm what he couldn't even hope to phantom.

"You've been captured," she whispered.

His eyes widened. Hands immediately shot to his sides for pockets and he paled when he realized his normal clothes were gone.

No Katana, no suicide pill.

No defense.

"Shit."

And he knew things and now she knew he knew things and nobody was ever supposed to find out and-

"Just calm down," Sakura said in her best bedside manner voice.

-he was in serious trouble.

He blinked through the pain. He had been captured. There was no escape. No immediate escape meant death. He was so tired. He barely had the strength to stay awake, death would be release.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

And he was looking at the needle shutting his eyes when it was jabbed in.

"I'm going to nurse you back to health," Sakura whispered watching as he eventually opened heavily medicated eyes, looking extremely dopy.

He frowned and gave her a look that clearly questioned her sanity.

"And be quiet, I don't want anyone to find you."

He continued to frown as the pain ebbed away.

"You're…" he strained but couldn't as he lost himself to sleep.

She sighed and went to clean her hands before making an instant dinner she had saved up. She pondered the rest of the meal trying to figure out what would have been his last words.

_You're helping me?_

_You're crazy. _

_You're dead._

She was convinced the blackened secret hidden away in her parent's wardrobe was her demise.

**...**

"Orochimaru-Sama-"  
"WHERE IS HE?"  
"We don't-"  
"WHERE?"  
"Please my lord we are doing everything we-"  
"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"


	4. Part I: Chapter IV

**Sell Out **

**Part I Chapter IV**

* * *

"_He is the last of his kind, a boy with eyes as red as the fiery pits of hell and talents in trickery to rival the devil himself. The perfect soldier, the ultimate killer, the gods carved his kind to bring an end to this war…"_

**...**

**The Hokage Tower **

"Hokage Danzo, the Sound they are in an uproar."

Silence.

"They have begun retreating on site."

"Push forward into their territory."

"No they are massing, coming together."

"That just makes them a bigger target. Immobilize the demon fox."

"Sir, Orochimaru himself is coming."

To attack now would be suicide or the final battle was approaching.

"They are doing a roll call."

Bizarre, completely and utterly bizarre. It is not the final battle. They have a forever stretch to go.

"One of the men from Beta platoon survived the infiltration... he claims…"

"What?"

"He claims Orochimaru is demanding his weapon back."

Danzo looked down. "So it's true…"

Thoughts swirl unimaginable.

"He actually exists."

**...**

"…_or an end to humanity as we know it."_

**...**

**3 years earlier **

"Do you remember her pleas for mercy?"

Blood curdling scream as the Katana is twisted. Nobody is going to hear.

"I do."

The last thing ever to be seen is blood red eyes before the general of the Western sector falls to the floor.

Kunai twirled and returned as the man whiles around in pain, hands over his slashed and now permanently blinded eyes, thick dark blood gushing to the floor.

"That is for my mother."

Child sits cross legged.

"I'll give you a moment before we get on to my father."

Shrieks and contorted movements.

**...**

"Naruto what if he's dangerous?"

Huddled over, darkened alley. Sakura choose not to embrace Naruto's condescending look because he was leaving her alone with a Sound soldier and she was convinced he was going to try and kill her.

"What if he's insane?"

Naruto bowed his head as terrible thoughts wandered _because_ _anyone that wanted to be my friend must be insane right Sakura?_

But as his best-friend bit her lip he knew that was not how she meant it.

"Sakura I will be back soon," Naruto said giving a reassuring grin making his nose crinkle "I told you what he's like."

He reminded her of her parents but not in the good way when she realized the stab at her heart was all she had left of them anymore.

"People change Naruto," she exasperated. "He's not a little eight year old anymore."

The look in his eyes and the way he held her hand, _I need you to do this for me_ and he had always been there for her.

Always had her back-

Been by her side-

She exhaled because in his absence it was finally her turn.

**Sakura's house **

Her feet heavy, eyes half lidded she stopped at the door of her parent's room. It was a sanctioned door and when sweeps came they were almost merciful respecting her loss. They would go in and see an alter and flickering candles and turn away. It was like the doorway to an alternate reality, devoted doctor and surgeon with fierce allegiance to her county of birth on one end and traitor Sound wench on the other.

It became apparent he was still asleep. He was going to need to eat soon and have some water and she needed to do some more healing. She pulled back the blanket and put a hand on his shoulder-

He gave a jolt and sat up with a snap instinctively trying to draw a weapon he did not have. She almost howled in frustration as she tried to push him back down.

He gritted his teeth in agony and used all his power to stay sitting.

"No, don't do that," she begged shoving him back down successfully and he gasped in surprise at being over powered. He was not used to being so weak.

He seemed to suddenly calm and Sakura wondered desperately why. She looked to his stomach to see blood seeping through the bandages.

_Great…_

She whimpered when his fist flew to the wall with a painful thud and a coat hanger dropped. He caught it in between his hands in a clapping motion inhaling sharply at the unbearable pain that shot up his shoulder. She backed away as he broke the metal apart using the miniscule amount chakra he could muster.

_He's going to try and kill me with that? _

He stretched it out and pushed it against his own throat. She moved like lightning to stop him.

_Nope he's going to kill himself…_

"Please don't do that, I'm just trying to help."

"I will never betray Orochimaru!"

**...**

**Cloud 9 years earlier. **

The seven year old gripped his knees.

_Can't go outside. They went outside. Can't go outside. They went outside. _

The smell of death was slowly creeping into his room, his corner.

_Can't go outside. They went outside. Can't go outside. They went outside. _

Shadows danced in his peripheral and it was almost hyperventilation.

_They came back to kill me too. I'm dead. They came back to-_

"Hello."

Squeak, bowed head.

"My name is Orochimaru."

"Go away," is whispered to his knees.

Lethal and persistent like a snake in long grass, deadly and concealed.

"They killed them all didn't they?"

Onyx orbs dare to lift, peering at serpent like eyes through his dust covered fringe.

"They are monsters."

Silence.

"Your mother, your father."

Flicker in eyes.

"Your brother."

Swallow.

"All murdered. The killers walk free."

Sound headband outstretched.

"Justice my child."

Hands slack fastened around knees.

"Together we will bring their memories justice."

**...**

"Right…" she breathed moving a hand to his wrist. He hissed but she didn't back up tucking another under his left. There was no way he could overpower her now.

"Don't do anything rash…"

He glared at her fighting to decapitate himself.

She wished she knew his actual name. Then maybe she could get through to him.

_You know… if he kills __himself… Naruto won't blame me._

And she could not entertain such a dangerous thought.

"I put a lot of work into getting you better and this is how you repay me?" Sakura mumbled leaning over him.

"I will not be tortured," he hissed. "You are healing me up for interrogation. Let me die."

"No I won't-"

"That's what you do at Leaf! We know what you do to those with heaven and earth seals," he growled, the flesh of his fingers digging into the wire in desperation. She stared at the mark on his neck and couldn't help but shutter. It worried her to no end.

"I won't even chance releasing information that could hurt Orochimaru!"

Sakura knew some of the Sound soldiers were extremist. Many of the bombing within her city only happened because they were by single Sound soldiers that breached, wired up as a living bomb. She had seen one man blow himself to hell screaming Orochimaru's name and calling him a saviour.

She quietly wondered why. Their allegiance was only ever to Orochimaru not to the war or their comrades. Leaf was all about comrades.

"I want to help you," Sakura whispered.

"Then let go," he choked pushing further.

"No," she said cuttingly and he narrowed his eyes. She returned the favour speaking "I don't want you to die."

She could feel his left arm shaking as he fought back his shoulder's desire to make him cave. Why didn't she want him to die? He saw the leaf village headband on her. She should be cheering him on.

"Now be good and let go," she condescended because it was the only way she could handle this twisted turn of events.

"I will never-"

"I know you won't betray Orochimaru and I don't want you to," she snapped.

The metal no longer pressed into his skin as she bent it and pulled it back. He coughed.

"Why are you doing this?" he said frustrated.

She snatched the coat hanger out of his hands and he winced. She threw it behind her out of reach.

"There is only one reason why I am doing this and he will be back two weeks on Tuesday."

He gave her a cold look. What the hell was she talking about?

"You're selling me out," he stated.

"No, I want you to get better not to be given in for interrogation," she announced.

"What are you just going to set me free?" he stated voice cold "Are you stupid?"

She almost laughed. _Thanks to Naruto pretty much. _

"Just crazy," she replied lightly. He watched as her viridian eyes rested on the remaining coat hangers.

"I'm confiscating these," she thought aloud.

"You don't have to do this," he hissed.

"I know."

"If you kill me now you will have saved me a lot of pain," He continued weakly but still snarling.

"I know."

"I am your sworn enemy."

"I know," she sighed.

The coat hangers landed with a clash a good distance away from him. Not too far as a part of her hoped he would reach. She was always teasing herself like that. She got back down placing her hand over him commanding energy to her fingertips and ignoring his look of contempt, his glaring eyes.

He felt the cool of her chakra and stared as the hair fell in her face. It was such an unusual colour. She really stood out in his memory but he was too thrashed to think.

**...**

**2 years earlier, Sound: North base prison. **

"Sasuke-San."

It wasn't uncommon for inmates to know his name (everyone here did) but to dare to talk to him? Sasuke turned facing the bars and everyone took a step back.

Except one.

Viridian green eyes and a lighter than magenta shade of hair blazed at him fingers curling around the bars, look earnest. And the thing she said next had his eyebrow raising.

**...**

"You're insane," Sasuke said sluggishly deciding it was the last thing he was ever going to say to her.

"And you're almost done;" Sakura noted one hundred percent agreeing with him as she pressed down near his shoulder asking "Does that hurt?"

No response and she guessed he'd had enough. She produced a needle and he surprisingly allowed her to inject it.

The morphine invaded his bloodstream and he took deep breaths.

He allowed her to re- stitch and clean the wound on his stomach and she wound the bandages around his torso.

"Okay I've got to go out so…"

She hit a pressure point on his neck and everything went black and Sakura stood with a sigh.

"Why did you have to be so suicidal?"

She stared at his unconscious face and tried to associate a deep hate with it and not a 17 year old boy in over his head. His features soft yet defined as he lay helpless. She scrunched up her face at his placid one.

"Don't look at me like that."

**...**

Sakura came into the room with a bowl of rice and froze as he stared up at her eerily close to the door. He sat on the floor only a meter away. Her heart rose up in her chest.

"How did you get…?"

She saw the blood, the trail of blood splatters and the pooling to where he was currently at. All the stitching, all the chakra… the time and the effort she had put into healing him, undone callously.

"Don't even try to leave this room; I lock it from the outside," she said instantly knowing she caught him in an attempt to get out.

Nothing was returned but a hard look because it was vacant and full of nothingness unbreakable. He was the most uncomfortable stare of her life.

Because she could feel an intensity that threatened to burn her to cinders, something jagged in the darkness. She didn't like that stare.

"So no point dragging yourself around, undoing the stitching and thrashing your ankle and shoulder, no point erasing all the work I put into you, all the chakra."

He stared and she shivered at the penetrating look before shaking it off. That look is not capable of forgiveness. He was so selfish.

"You need to eat."

She extended the bowl.

"Otherwise you're going to-"

Whack.

There was a chink as the bowl fell to the floor, rice spilling everywhere and he withdrew his hand.

She began to shake, this time in rage.

"Look… I don't know about Sound…"

She grabbed his injured shoulder and squeezed. He drew in breath sharply felling agony and lurching forward.

"But here we have rations… and I just gave you my share…"

She shook him off when she felt his chin on her shoulder and the sound of his repressed agony at her administrations.

"And now we are both going to go hungry."

The eyes were shut and it was far more appealing and easy on her own.

"An unnecessary waste."

She continued to mould her chakra giving him as much as she could for damage control. He was a bastard for doing this.

"Now in those tunnels they say you Sound barbarians resort to cannibalism."

He opened eyes half lidded and she was a little taken aback by the supple nature under a chakra rush. The way they no longer stabbed, the way they searched for something to connect with and simply hold gaze.

"You have no right to mess me around and you have no right to die."

A hand shot to her wrist and her skin crawled and gasping she wasn't the only one. His seal began to creep over his skin and he ground his teeth together giving a low hiss. Fear of her wellbeing subsided when she realized he was trying to control it, it successfully traced back over his milky skin and she swallowed.

His eyes were shutting again.

"Don't pass out."

He had lost a lot of blood.

"Can you hear me?"

She was kicking herself for not healing him earlier but they had to do this.

"Okay just breathe, I need you to breathe."

Chakra surge. He gave a slight jolt and he seemed to have stopped fading.

"Squeeze my arm if you can hear me."

A weak attempt to grip. She felt unwanted relief. She had one last thing to say, leaning over to him. "Two things Sound boy one, you are not going to pull a stunt like this again and two you are going to go back to that wardrobe and stay there."

He smells like ash, his hair is like soot and eyes charcoal black.

"Do we have an understanding?"

Something about him is burning.

She pulled away and he looked out of it white as a sheet. Fading eyes set on her with a begrudging nod, before they became bitter in a harsh glare she realized he was all but to prepared to hate her right back.

**...**

"Justice…"

"Yes, there is no wielder of justice greater than the avenger. Sasuke, I can give you power, a place to live. Sasuke I can give you life."

"Avenger…"

"And all I ask in return Sasuke… is that you swear yourself to me."


	5. Part I: Chapter V

Sell Out

**Part I: Chapter V**

* * *

_"There are about hundred things but I know only one thing truly matters to you."_

_**...**  
_

It was like a pinprick. The signature chakra needlepoint shock.

It was coming from one of the surrounding houses, a cursed seal oozing poison, ionizing corruption. The two men on patrol did not hesitate to jump into action. Before radio waves transmitted code black one of the men slumped to the floor, dead.

A scalpel lodged in the base of his skull.

**...**

_"I think I found him."_

**...**

**Konoha Hospital, shower room**

Sakura closed her eyes, the nozzle pressure was so-so. It could always be better on her aching muscles. Her chakra expenditure today had been higher than usual. Part of that was to do with healing the Sound soldier at home. Her mouth straightened into a hard line. Tiredly she looked around the pristine, tiled room. Steam rose up around her and fogged up the white tiles with condensation. She reached her exhausted hand out to rest in front of her. She was so tired she could pass out on her feet.

And she only had him to blame.

**...**

**Six days earlier **

Sasuke lay on his side making sure to cover his heaven seal. The plan was not to resist? The plan was useless. She was looking at him intently, hovering above the wound on his stomach.

"You healed really fast."

She breathes something like 'twice as effective' and he rolls his head back evenly. It didn't concern him.

"Can you heal yourself?"

He didn't reply when a tooth sized fragment of china catches his eye. A thin ceramic from a different world before the war, a fine blue brush stroke all that remained of the decorative pattern.

He didn't flinch when she applied too much pressure; staring at the remainder of the bowl he hit to the floor. He wonders if it was really the last of her rations.

**...**

Their relationship was tense. She figured the biggest insult in Sound was not to look a person in the eyes. He refused to speak to her. She shook her head, water cascading off of her. He even kept his hand over his cursed seal in case she tried to seal it. Bitterly she lamented _I don't even know how_.

He did listen to her though. She found that odd. She let out a sigh in the leisure of being alone, moving idle fingertips.

A large hand shot out against the wall covering her own with the same pale skin, hot breath in her ear and a warm body behind her. She got a mouthful of water spinning at what was definitely male.

"W-wh-!"

Only to find that there was nothing there.

Her eyes slid to the side when there was a rustling sound, someone going through a toiletries bag. Her stomach clenched and it was suddenly cold.

"Hey forehead."

"…Ino."

Yamanaka Ino stood before her, tilting her beautiful head coyly. Sakura narrowed her eyes because surely Ino was everything she was not. That included forgiving.

"We totally need to talk Sakura," was announced in that dreamy sugar-coated tone. "I feel like we hardly see each other anymore. You got a minute?"

It didn't matter how the towel got in her hand. She wrapped it around her body quickly, giving Ino her back. She needed to get out of there.

**...**

**6 years earlier **

Envy pitted her like a cyst, closing her like a chest with a venom sealed lock.

_Thwack._

Kunai lodged in hard wood board.

_Thwack. _

Shuriken lodged in hard wood board.

_Chink. Thwack._

_Deflected _Kunai lodged in hard wood board.

Sakura watched Ino throw gracefully, almost artistic. The way Ino moved was like watching a beautiful dance she didn't know the music too. She had perfect poise. Sakura was sure the teachers at the academy loved her for it. She would become a great and fearsome ninja.

"Maybe it is for the best," Ino said. This jutted Sakura from her thoughts as she wrung nimble fingers.

"I mean you made me a blunt Kunai for my birthday."

She hadn't wanted Ino to hurt herself. It was innocent enough but there in lay the problem she supposed. What true ninja has use for a blunt weapon?

She still argued, "But I have chakra."

Her parents were unreasonable; trying to convince them to let her fight was like the sun rising from the west. It almost made Sakura choke. Her words lost to a torrent of wind.

"But I have chakra…"

**...**

**Konoha Hospital, Locker room**

She found solace in her thoughts, _I am just tired. _

Sakura quickly got dressed in her street clothes, shoving her uniform in her locker. She gave a sway. Delicate strands pushed back from porcelain skin.

"I am stronger than this."

Slamming the locker shut she marched outside. She was glad for the bitter chill of wind Konoha was famous for. It made her feel a little more awake.

**Hospital Courtyard**

"So don't mess with me," she finished under her breath. Trying to ignore the nagging suspicion she was losing it. She glanced up briefly as she passed a tall shadow cast on the wall. Her eyes fell to a boy, backlit by florescence, arms crossed over his chest, dark eyes set on her.

She really was losing it.

She did a double take coming to a complete stop at the blinding light. She recognised him. He terrorized her daily but only in the security of her own home.

A smirk pulled at an insanely handsome face, madness that he was still not locked away (injured) in her wardrobe.

"Sakura."

**...**

**Three years earlier**

"So what's your type?"

"Ino!"

"Come on Sakura."

A furious blush. Ino mused she _almost _matched her hair. Sakura was too adorable.

"I… I don't know okay!"

Ino reframed from laughing. All girls had a type (or plural) of guy that they liked best.

"Oh I know," Ino said slyly looking to the running water beneath them, she felt like teasing. "Is it Na-ru-to?"

"WHAT?" Sakura erupted. "Are you crazy?"

Ino finally gave into a chuckle. "But Sakura-_Chan_ you have both been spending ever so much time together lately."

"It's not Naruto!" she snapped back. "The boy I like- He would be the complete opposite of Uzumaki Naruto!"

Sakura pulled at her hair, resting her elbows on the railing of the bridge. _It's hopeless isn't it? _Ino thought _not telling me everything._

It's what best-friends do, they share all their secrets. She loved meeting here and spending time with someone so close.

**...**

Sakura found herself giving a silly _just silly _smile, hot all over. "He'd… The boy I like… he'd… he'd be serious you know. Smart not like Naruto... I'd be able to respect him. He'd… oh… He'd have an uncaring face but really he would care, dark eyes and hair, pale skin…"

She exhaled as the reflection below her rippled. Looks? She felt so shallow to go as far as to pick different looks from Naruto but all she knew is that she wanted the complete opposite of Naruto.

"...that would be my perfect guy."

Ino gave a teasing nudge and giggling she was nudged back.

"Yamanaka-San?"

Both girls turned slowly as a boy with dark hair, eyes and pale skin soon to be known as Sai-back-off-he's-mine blinked at the two of them.

"The Hokage wants to see you."

**...**

**Hospital courtyard**

"How disappointing," was said in a silky smooth voice she had almost forgotten the sound of. She was going to throw up as _he _rested his hands on the hilt of a katana.

"Who knew you were such a sucker for a pretty face?"

The site of his hand was bone chillingly familiar. She thought of the shower as he cupped the side of her face, everybody looking at them.

_Was it... _

"Hm Sakura? You're eyes literally bulged out of your head."

_Was it really…_

"I expected better of you."

In a cloud of smoke he was gone as laughter rang.

"Do you like him?" Kabuto said and that good natured laugh, that smile it became a _sneer_, an Evil-damn-you-all sneer. Her sensei… he was leering. "What do you think?"

Kabuto had transformed into her worst nightmare. The boy in her wardrobe and she needed to pass out and smash her head against the pavement.

_I really am tired…_

"What do I think?" she spoke spitefully as she walked away briskly. "I think you need to grow up."

**...**

**Sakura's house**

Standing at the open portion of the wardrobe dead on her feet, she couldn't see him.

That didn't mean he wasn't there. Tucked away in the opposite corner he preferred the darker side. A childish part of her wondered if it reminded him of the tunnels at home.

It felt a lot like suicide stepping into his domain. Propped up against the wall she felt exhausted. She'd be a mess for tomorrow.

She couldn't help but think he looked creepy in the shadows, but she was already in a panic from what happened with Kabuto. Getting down, she sat across at the other end. She had to talk to him.

She couldn't look at him knowing he was looking at her now. She didn't have Naruto and without him… there was really only one support.

"Something… happened. My Sensei…"

She had to look at him because her words were failing her. She had to tell someone what happened, she needed to warn him.

"Have you ever come into contact with a man called Kabuto?" she questioned. It was possible. Kabuto had infiltrated a Sound base at one point and maybe in that bright light it wasn't exactly the image before her. "It's just he transformed into..."

She stopped because she was being ridiculous and seeing things.

He suddenly doubled over and it would have been suspicious if he hadn't started spitting blood. Wearily she crawled over to him and was a little surprised when her hand was pushed away. He didn't want her help. She accidentally got a fistful of his hair in shock and screwed up her face in disgust. She could literally feel the grease in his hair.

… _I can't believe I am going to be doing this._

**...**

Sakura bought in the basin filled with warm water and was careful not to spill a drop. She set it down, trying to maintain equilibrium. He had already figured out what was happening by trying to undo the buttons on his shirt. He was quick. She'd give him that. She watched him struggle for a bit before taking over, careful not to upset the bandages on his stomach. He didn't approve of this, staring her down. She was so tired she just returned the look, a little surprised at how that seemed to unsettle him, almost as if he wasn't used to it.

"Okay lean over the bowl, head down, watch your back."

He hesitated and her hand quickly pressed to his collarbone. She ensured nothing would be relapsing anytime soon draping a towel over his shoulders when done. She almost found it amusing the way he dipped a finger into the water to see if it was warm.

"Trust me," left her lips and slowly he leaned over, she watched the muscles in his back tense. He didn't trust her. At least he listened.

She filled the jug quickly "You ready?"

And was she trying to get a response for the sake of it? When he said nothing _I know you can talk _echoed through every part of her. Placing a hand at the side of his head she poured carefully, listening to the trickling sound of water. He finally shut his eyes and she got to work on lathering his hair with product. His hair was so neglected, his long fringe falling in his eyes uncomfortably. She almost figured she'd be cutting his hair before huffing at the idea. He would be gone by then.

She scowled at him when he pushed her away with his good hand and tried to finish the job himself. If he got water on any of his wounds it would be a lot of extra work and pain.

"Let me do it," she broke in. There was a moment of deliberation before much to her surprise he lowered his hand. "Okay come forward," she said quickly, least he change his mind. She carefully rinsed the soap away. She was taken aback when he shivered. _But the waters not cold? _

"You okay?"

He looked up at her and she couldn't help but think him handsome. That he was just her type. He came forward again, indicating for her to keep going. The conditioner made his thick hair silky smooth. She marveled at this. It had looked so coarse. She wondered where she drew the line at massaging his scalp. He was more docile after that.

"Okay, get ready,"

She filled the jug again getting him into position and pouring it over his head. He shivered again and she was frowning. Then it hit her. He was shivering in _delight_.

He spluttered when she accidentally dumped the whole jug over his head. "S-Sorry!" she blurted and in her haste closing the distance between them, he was shoved back against the wooden door with the sheer force of her idiocy. The immediate reaction stunned her as a large hand was pressing low on her stomach in shock.

A shiver ran down her spine at his shallow breathing, their faces inches from each other in the darkness… he didn't push her off violently, he didn't hurt her and he didn't seem to blame her for anything.

Fisting his hands in the material of her shirt he just stared.

**...**

_"Sasuke-San? Do you agree with the plan?"_

_"..." _

_"What do you say?"_

_"Just get me out of here." _


	6. Part I: Chapter VI

AN: Heh... it's been a while. Not sure if I'm back or just delusional.

* * *

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter VI**

* * *

"_It's a shame really. She has so much potential."_

"_Don't tell me you are getting sentimental."_

"_I am simply mourning the loss of a great mind and talent."_

"_You have your orders-_

**...**

The knock on the door had Sakura jolting from her place at the window. Eyes trained to the heavens she had neither heard nor seen a figure creep through the night. They seemed to have materialised at her doorstep at the ungodly hour. Her heart pounded and fear strung out her spine like the spiked notches on a serrated blade.

Someone had found out about the soldier she was hiding. She made it to the door, rigid legs trapped in a death march. The band around her neck was squeezed as tightly as her grip on the handle.

Her mouth was dry at the sight of the assailant, "hello Kabuto-Sensei."

**...**

_-Sakura Haruno dies tonight."_

**...**

**Four years earlier**

She practiced on the East Side. There was always some refugee wandering the rubble, picking apart the remnants of past lives with the keen pit of their eye. Many would offer up their spoils but she would always refuse. These people were at the bottom tier of hospital treatment due to a tax on the staffs resources and time. Many of them could hardly afford basic medicine. The least she could do is try to help.

"Thank you so much!"

A little boy treated with an infected cut. His mother was in happy tears.

"Unbelievable."

An old lady with stomach ulcers, she had saved up for her medication especially.

"We owe you so much."

A father injured while building a house for his family. His dislocated shoulder reset.

Their smiles made her whole. She knew this is what she wanted to dedicate her life to.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The voice was commanding and cold. All of the people around her parted and she was left alone shaking. It was one of her teachers, Kabuto Yakushi. His stern face had her biting her lip in anguish. "Do you have any idea how unethical this is? You're only a student. I need to see your parents."

He escorted her home with a hung head. She was going to be kicked out of the medical academy she was enrolled in, never to realise her dream. She was in tears when her parents opened the door and Kabuto folded his arms.

"I want to let you know," he said clearly and here it came. A crooked scythe held over her, ready to strike. "That I think your daughter is amazing," he finished.

She looked to him in shock as a smile broke across his face.

"She shows great talent, empathy and promise at the tender age of twelve. I believe she will be one of the most competent doctors of her generation. One day I would like to train her personally."

He would hold to his word a year later, requesting her especially. He would diligently pass on everything he had been taught and her keen mind would soak it all up. They would earn prestigious reputations as some of the most competent new blood on offer. Her heart welled up when he winked at her before heading off.

"That's all."

**...**

"So I suppose you are wondering what brings me here at this hour," Kabuto asked evenly, stirring his tea clockwise. This turn of events had Sakura gripped in fear. She was so sure he could hear her wretched heart banging against her ribcage and see the way her eyes darted to her parent's door. She had given the Sound Soldier tea earlier and she almost shook realising her cups no longer matched. Would Kabuto take note of this miniscule detail?

"It might have crossed my mind," she stuttered out. She wished he would stop stirring the tea. The metal clanking against the china was jarring.

"I have discovered something remarkable," he replied cryptically. She doesn't breathe until he takes a decided sip of his drink. "Something I feel we need to discuss."

**...**

"You seem on edge Sakura?" Kabuto said evenly. Never had he seen his student so erratic. "Anything you're not telling me about?"

He wants to laugh at her pathetic attempt at playing it cool. "Like what Kabuto-Sensei?"

He takes another sip of his tea. "Oh I don't know," he shrugs. "The Sound soldier you are hiding in the other room maybe?"

**...**

Chocking, Sakura knocked over her teacup. It was the worst case. He had discovered everything.

"It's a serious offense to harbour a dangerous enemy, punishable by hanging if I am not mistaken."

She barely comprehends his words. Everything is over now. She seeks to understand little. "H-How?"

"So you don't deny it?" he adds conversationally before peering over the rim of his glasses at her. "It seems you and I are more alike than I originally thought. I approach this with mixed emotions."

She scurries to collect her life. Begging did not become her, "please don't report me."

"Oh no, that is not my intention at all." For a moment she has hope. Something to cling to in the abyss he has created. Then that is shot through with his deceitful tongue. "I intend to bring Sasuke back to Sound and our Lord Orochimaru."

_Our Lord Orochimaru_, it grows out in the back of her mind like an alum crystal. With a tight pressure and constriction that threatens to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces in realisation. Kabuto had spent his whole life lying to her, waiting for the opportune moment to stab Konoha in the back.

"You're a double agent..."

His smile bared his teeth. A blade glistens in his left hand when he stands. "I am. And my lord has ordered me to kill you."

**...**

**One and a half years earlier**

"Kabuto-Sensei?"

She thinks he is used to hearing uncertainty in her voice. She has only just stared to become confident in her abilities through his coaching. This time her tone is laced with disbelief. Can he make it out?

"Yes?" he replies lightly.

The woman before him is stretched out, thin limbs jutting at inhuman angles. She is so old it appears that dust has settled between her wrinkles. Her lips protrude with thick, clotted blood. It is a stark contrast to her sallow face. She is dead. In the back of Sakura's mind something about that is wrong. His shoulders hunch as he turns back to his work.

"...nothing."

**...**

Kabuto stopped at the sight of Sakura breaking into a smile. He expected fear, betrayal and sorrow to sweep her features. Some wretched display as she begged for her life. Instead she looked practically smug. He was suddenly feeling light headed.

"Why are you smiling?"

It didn't sound like him. The voice was unnerved and seemed to bounce off the peeling wallpaper.

"Oh Kabuto-Sensei," she replied smoothly, he felt caught in the space between teeth, ready to be ground down in her mouth. "You underestimate me. He was healing at double the speed. Did you think I wouldn't notice? Do you think I wouldn't be able to recognise your work?"

Suddenly he was staggering back, unable to keep his balance and almost bringing the table cloth with him. The kunai wedges itself in the floor and it takes everything to stand still and face her haughty face. _Clever girl_ he thinks _figuring me out. _

"Of course I wasn't sure what your interest was. I needed to know for sure. It's why I drugged your tea."

Yes, suddenly he could recognise his own slacking muscles and waning eyesight. Typhion if he wasn't mistaken, potent but odourless. He was about to pass out. She is so confident of his state she lets him dip his hand into his ninja pouch. He feels only crushed roots and herbs.

"Silly me," she coos "I thought you were doing it to _protect_ me. Turns out you are nothing but a filthy traitor."

She has a shadow. It pushes its way out the spare bedroom and creeps along the floor with velvet tread. A peripheral demon, Kabuto tries not to look into bloody eyes.

"And I will see _you_ killed for it."

It is then the shadow strikes. In a moment she is pinned, gasping in shock. Kabuto takes the opportunity and rubs a fistful of the powdered concoction into her face. She splutters, swallowing and inhaling the poison.

**...**

She tries to shout out but it is like her mouth is packed with sawdust, bitter and acidic. It chocks her and she splutters in pain

_I wasn't expecting that. _

She is sinking into the floor. Weakly she tries to turn on her side. All of her strength is revoke to nausea. Her mind is a beautiful disaster, swirling like a gasoline rainbow. Colours drip around her, shiny as glazed clay.

_What did you do? _

Vultures are arguing above her. Who will get to pick her carcass apart? How long will she be left to rot?

_Calm down Sasuke. _

She tries to focus on their circling faces but intense pain pits in her eyeballs. She tries to cover them and is stuck on the stiff imprint of her hand. Her brain can't pick up the movement quick enough. She can still see the outline from where it was originally.

_Heal her now! _

She manages a moan at this point, recoiling as pinpricks of red swoop in on her. They seem to swallow every inch of her.

_You promised she wouldn't get hurt. _

She tries to bury herself into the cool feeling that has spread across her lips. Stardust sweeps around her. Their glittery betrayal cuts deep and makes her try to scream and thrash through paralysis.

_Why that factors in at a time like this is beyond me. I have direct orders from Orochimaru to tie up all loose ends. That includes her. _

She is in trouble. Her drugged up, racing mind fails to understand.

_You can't kill her. _

She has fallen into a dark pocket of time and become stuck there. She is about to die. Before that darkness embraces her, she just catches it.

_And why not? _

**...**

"_Because I won't let you."_


	7. Part I: Chapter VII

**Sell Out **

**Part I: Chapter VII**

* * *

"_Man is warlike. Since the beginning he fashioned weapons to assault, chased to kill and sharpened sticks to pike heads. When there is no one else to attack, shoot and bomb-"_

**...**

**6 years earlier**

Ash flakes around them. Sinks into the lines of faces, sprinkles their hair grey. Naruto covers his nose at the concentration of the foul, earthy stench. They could smell it a mile out. He is curious about the buildings shattered formation. The bricks are baked and hot, a large chimney spiralling into the sky and barbed wire circling the property like a crown of thorns.

He turns back when one of his superiors fall to their knees. Tears streak eyes, gnawing teeth are exposed in anger and bilious faces avert mournful eyes.

"Move out."

They can't. Their mission is to locate and assist their comrades. They haven't sighted them yet.

"What about the 71st infantry!" Naruto shouts. "We're supposed to help them!"

The look in his superior's eyes has Naruto gagging in terrible understanding. The smell they chased up the mountain wasn't fertilizer. It was cooked flesh and burnt bone. They stand in a crematorium. Blame racks the twelve year old boy. If only he had been quicker, if only he had seen the signs, if only he could have saved them.

Ash covers him in age.

"We just found them."

**...**

"_-He turns on himself."_

**...**

She awakens to agonizing pain in her stomach. It is like she has swallowed glass, shards cutting into her stomach lining. With a moan she turns on her side, trying to comprehend the soft warmth of her mattress. Slowly her mind formulates what had happened. Kabuto had poisoned her. The excruciating pain in her stomach was no doubt a side effect of the drug. Everything after that is hazy but one terrifying thing stood out.

Why wasn't she dead?

She looked around her familiar room, very much on edge. Millions of possibilities soared through her mind. Fight or flight had taken hold in despite of her pain. She would run away from the madness, the almost mausoleum her house had become. She made it into the living room before she tripped. Crying out in pain, she followed the silver strand of string to the other side of the room. Her body tensed at the sight of the dark haired boy, and co-conspirator in her attempted murder.

"Sorry," he apologised gruffly, gesturing to the wire in his hand. "I figured you might run so..."

So the sound soldier talks again. She readies herself to dash away but assessing his injuries she deems him incapable of chasing her. She doesn't take her eye off him sitting and slouched against the wall, using the time to catch breath and steady nerves.

"Are you okay?" he questions.

She narrows her eyes in mistrust, not understanding why he looks away from her as if embarrassed. "I'm Sasuke."

Slowly she brings herself to a sitting position, wincing when her stomach churns. "Right... what happened?"

"He drugged you with this stuff," he holds up a satchel belonging to Kabuto. Kabuto betrayed her and spoke of killing her. He was a double agent for Sound and all the trust she had for the man had come crashing down in a wave. She thought she had out plotted him, and then Sasuke came along and shot that to hell.

"You didn't drink your tea," she muttered to herself before looking over at him. "Just like you two planned huh?"

"No," he retorts, he speaks so baseline as if nothing could ever catch him off guard. "You weren't meant to get hurt. He was just meant to get me out."

She locks up the information carefully, tugging on the obvious thread attached to it with her next question. "So why aren't I 'hurt' as you put it?"

"You have saved my life. I couldn't just..." he trails off.

She doesn't care for his sifted obligation, the fact he is still in her house at all. She creeps closer to him, testing the limits. "So you don't want to hurt me?"

"No."

She slips the satchel away from him to evaluate its contents. With a hiss she recognises the crushed root and curses Kabuto. She needed to get her hands on some Sancall to soothe her stomach.

"Where is he?" she questioned bitterly.

"Probably the border by now."

Her eyes widen in shock. "How long was I out?"

"Three days."

She felt even sicker. "The hospital-"

"I got Kabuto to tell them you were taking special training on his orders," Sasuke cut off. "I'm not sure how long he told them you'd be off for though. Oh and here."

A tiny signature vial of Sancall was placed in her hand. She recognised the pointed tip as Kabuto's. Kabuto wanted to kill her and would not have given her a reliever for his poison willingly. Not just that but Sasuke had made the choice to stay here instead of leaving with Kabuto. She took a long, hard look at the Oto soldier before her.

"It seems you have thought of everything," she said carefully before lowering her voice to a deadly whisper. "But tell me what happens if I hand you over to Konoha. What would you do then?"

There was a tense silence. Well she thought it had been tense until Sasuke laughed. There was nothing joyous in the tone. It rang with condescending amusement. She bristled.

"I'm not used to civilians trying to intimidate me," he offered before continuing smoothly. "Besides you're not going to hand me over."

She folded her arms. "Arrogant much?"

"More like _confident_," he retorted. The way he said the last word had a shiver running down her spine and she was not sure why. She spent the rest of the morning recuperating before heading back into work, fighting through the pain. No one questioned anything.

**...**

"Do you want tea?" Sakura questioned, leaning against the door to her parent's room.

"Is it drugged?" Sasuke replied lazily. Sakura gave an indignant huff, running her fingers through her tousled hair.

"Don't tempt me."

"Impressive," was the reply. Sakura blinked at the oddity. Not following.

"What is?" she questioned.

"You squaring off with Kabuto. You almost had him."

_Thanks_, she thought dryly. _I had almost forgotten about him for a moment_. Lately she had been dwelling on what had made Kabuto's loyalty change. Were the conditions better in Sound? Was he interested in medicines only they could offer? Had he always been on their side? She came up painfully short.

"Impressive for a civilian," Sasuke finished.

"How do you know I am a civilian?" she defended, eager to change the topic.

He raised an eyebrow like she just said the most ridiculous thing ever. She didn't like being made the fool and added hastily "I've been a ninja for years."

He shook his head. "No. You hold yourself like a beaten down grandma, not a poised shinobi. You react so slowly you would be dead 10 times over and finally you are soft as butter," he said matter of fact, clearly gesturing to her unmuscular frame. Her mouth was hanging open at his onslaught of insults, utterly wordless.

She narrowed her eyes before stalking out the room.

"No tea for you."

**...**

Sasuke tries to piece together a few things. The house is broken down and uncared for. Taps leak, floorboards creak, dryrot grows out like a tumour and wallpaper curls back. He concludes Sakura has been on her own for a long time, possibly since she was a child. Even in war there is a certain level of pride a home maintains. Sakura to young, unskilled and disinterested in such things has let it all fall into disarray.

He finds the alter, confirming his suspicions. The people (parents) in the photo are not dead. Well more specifically not believed to be dead. Personal effects are left untouched or replaced routinely as if the owners will stroll through the door at any moment. He thinks Sakura has not grown up as quickly as she believes. Only someone childish could cling to such delirium.

On the subject of Sakura she is never home. The hospital is her life. Medical texts and journals are stashed throughout the house. She is diligent and committed to her work. Spare time spent honing skills and refining procedures. He must admire this. He applies the same dedication to his jutsu. There is something lonely about it all now in reflection, barren and avoidant.

Slowly he pieces together Sakura's life, wondering how long before she comes home.

**...**

"My katana."

It is the first time she hears any semblance of happiness in Sasuke's voice. She rests the sheathed blade against her thigh, watching how his eyes track the movement.

"I thought I lost it in the fight." He outstretched his arm for the katana. Simple give take. She almost snorts. He was enough of a headache on his own.

"Why would I give you a weapon?"

His demeanour shifts to something dangerous. The subtle change frightens her. A solid reminder of how menacing he truly is.

"That's mine."

"It's just a sword."

"_My_ sword," he corrects. She finds his attachment to the thing silly. She supposed ninja could get real particular about their tools. She wondered if it was a family heirloom.

"I will give you back _your_ sword when you leave. Right now, you having it makes me uncomfortable."

She does not and will never trust him. He seems to understand this. Doesn't like it but much to her surprise doesn't push her any further. She still hides it away in one of her best spots just to be sure.

**...**

Sakura almost hissed at him as she channelled chakra into his ankle, careful not to lose control of the energy in anger. Sasuke leaned back equally as irritated. Their stalemate was only going to last as long as it took to develop another argument.

She fired first, "Orochimaru is of no comparison to the hokage."

"Yes," Sasuke agreed acidic. "The hokage is a mere bureaucrat whereas Orochimaru is a true warrior."

She stopped trying to repair his ankle, turning on him with a sneer. "Don't like it when I insult your precious Orochimaru?"

His grit jaw told her he _did not_. She moved onto his shoulder but found herself gritting her own jaw as he stared her down. A battle is engaged, fought and lost with the eyes. His were unnerving and entirely unfair. How could she ever compete with his dark, shark-like eyes?

"Stop that."

He had found his leverage and settled himself in to the prying look. It left her feeling so exposed. She had to concentrate and stop her hands from shaking. She found herself back on their past argument in frustration.

"You're smart. Why do you fall for his bullshit? He's a monster."

Her tone was almost pleading. It startled her as much as it did him.

"His 'bullshit' gave me a purpose. Something to live for, otherwise I'd be dead."

She had struck a tender nerve. His glare was flint-hard and conviction overwhelming. Sakura wonders what it is that makes people believe at all.

"I liked you better when you didn't talk," she bit out, only to have him bite back.

"I never liked you."

Why was she helping this Oto soldier then? Angry thoughts fly to Naruto but never crystallize. A small smile tugs at her lips instead. She'd do anything for her best-friend that's why.

**...**

**4 years earlier**

They gravitated towards each other. They didn't talk much at first. Just sat and looked up at the stars. Sakura appreciated the quiet and Naruto the company. Eventually his big mouth shattered the peace, not being able to stand his complacent roll any longer.

"I'm sorry about your parent's."

Her lips pursed before murmuring 'thanks'. Naruto pulled the blades of grass mindlessly. "There's this guy Iruka. He's the best. If you need a dad he's like loan-a-dad."

"He's good to you huh?" she questioned and he gave a feverous nod in the darkness, lying down and stretching over the sweeping hill beneath them.

"Yeah!" he said brightly. "He doesn't care about the demon..."

Naruto trailed off, his turn to tighten his mouth as tension crept into his muscles at the taboo.

"Fox?" Sakura finished and he came up on his elbows in surprise. He watched the way she avoided his gaze, turning back to the sky quickly. Acknowledgement was enough.

"It talks to me sometimes..."

He is shamed by what he just admitted. Compulsion drove him. He had fallen into a dark pocket of time and got trapped there. She bristled of course. He would understand if she never came back again.

"Really?" she pushed but most certainly on edge.

"Yeah." He can't stop. "You know it says there is no end to war. 'We will lose' it always says-"

"I don't like it," she cut off and he took a deep breath and the sinister chuckle in the back of his mind.

"From now on you can talk to me instead," she says lightly. The moonlight silhouettes her face perfectly, her smile igniting. He feels whole again. Unlike the defence strip with the dark sound boy it doesn't need to be aloud. He and Sakura are friends now. The loaded thoughts in the back of his mind melted away into white noise.

"We will win this war and my parents are going to be okay," she finishes softly.

He offers up his own smile. "It's going to be okay."

There is a stretch of silence. She fills it before he gets the chance. "See that star?"

Hand rose up, pointing.

"Yeah."

"That's my grandad and that one my grandma."

He likes the idea of feeling close to the people they have lost this way. Picking out a star for little Hinata. He thinks of being sent to the front and on missions. Even if everything is falling apart, the world descending into madness and set ablaze-

His and Sakura's sky will always be the same.

**...**

**Sakura's house, present day**

Monstrous chakra wakes him. It is straight from the battlefield, driving that swirling energy into his stomach and bleeding him out. The familiar aura is drawing closer. Dark, endless chakra spiralled deep. Sasuke struggles to stand, supporting all his weight on his good foot. In an instant he has his katana. It is coming for him.

And this time he will strike first.

**...**

"_Sakura-Chan I'm back!"  
"Naruto!"_

* * *

AN: okay I have decided I am going to finish part one. Technically it could end there and if I don't feel like I have the commitment to continue I will drop the story. Thank you to everyone for the support.


	8. Part I: Chapter VIII

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter VIII**

* * *

"_Iruka you have been summoned by this council to discuss the welfare of the demon fox-"_

"_His name is Naruto!" _

**...**

"Sakura-Chan!"

Everyone waiting for rations flinched at the loud voice. Sakura practically jumped for joy. A glimpse of blonde hair against the sunset was all she needed to break from the line.

"Naruto!"

They both stopped in front of each other with a grin. Normally this would be a time for celebration, instant ramen and catching up. Her smile edged away at the grave reality of the situation. It was different now.

Naruto's grin did not falter. "Let's go back to your place."

**...**

"_And after this day you will never forget it." _

**...**

**Streets of Konoha**

Naruto rubbed his swollen cheek with a pout. The inertia of Sakura's punch may have sent him flying but the verbal beat down was the real punishment. He dragged his feet along the cobbled road, readjusting his uniform vest apprehensively.

"Do you have any idea what that sounded like? Now people will think we are together!"

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He hadn't meant it like _that_.

"Everyone was looking!"

She would have continued her rant if not interrupted. "How is he?"

He knew his mistake even before Sakura craned her head around for ears droppers. Of course they shouldn't talk about the Oto soldier in public but he couldn't stop himself. He had been worried for weeks but finally he was going to see him.

"That stupid plant you wanted me to look after?" Sakura covered seamlessly. "It's been nothing but trouble!"

He breathed a sigh of relief at her quick thinking, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze in reassurance. He couldn't thank her enough for this. She stopped abruptly by a street lantern under the guise of fixing her shoe. He got the impression she was trying to calm down.

"It was dying when you gave it to me," she grumbled before trailing off "It's getting better..."

The bags under her eyes are dark, chakra a strained pinprick. She has exhausted herself. His poor Sakura-Chan. He pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his chest. He can tell she had needed him these past weeks and he whispers 'from now on' to her softly. Sadly the nice moment doesn't last long when she lands another hard punch, this time on his bicep.

"Now people will talk more!" she moaned but still took him by the hand to lead him home.

**Sakura's house**

The moment Naruto took a step into the pitch black house he was on edge. It was the same gut wrenching feeling he got that time he accidently jumped into an enemy trench. His captain said it wasn't the first time some sad bugger had gotten mixed up but certainly the first time he had seen them come back out alive.

"Oh?" Sakura said in confusion as she flicked the light switch back and forth to no avail. "There must be a blackout."

No. The power had been cut. He swore under his breath, eyes darting around the house for any signs of life. He hadn't been thinking straight in his excitement. He should have got Sakura to warn the guy he was coming first. Ninja did _not_ like surprises. If he didn't play this right he was going to get a kunai to the head. Worse there could be a ruckus which would alert the whole street. Containing the situation was crucial. Even though he didn't like it, he kicked the door shut, vanquishing the main source of light. _This guy likes the dark _he thought _better play it his way_.

"Candles," Sakura muttered, padding along to the kitchen.

Naruto got in quick, keeping his voice calm but commanding. "Sakura don't move."

The scuffling of her feet stop. He wondered if the Oto soldier heard her breathing hitch as well? He was surely in the room watching. All Naruto had to do was reason with the guy and prove he meant no harm. They were old friends after all. He might even recognise his voice.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said clearly. "My name is-"

He never got to finish his introduction. He was smacked down to the floor painfully, pinned to the ground with a katana lodged in his ribcage.

"NARUTO!"

**...**

Sakura had seen it happen at the last second. A shadowy figure drop down from the ceiling and the glint of a blade. Now Naruto had a belly full of steel or worse a punctured lung or heart. What if he had been hit in the head? What if he was instantly killed? All she managed was to scream before a hand covered her mouth and hushed her. Sasuke. It took her aback for a moment. She was being steered gently towards her room when her mind kicked in again.

He was taking her away from Naruto.

She bit down on his hand as hard as she could. His grip constricted around but he did not recoil his hand or make a single sound. She flailed and kicked, gaining hope from a loud moan in Naruto's direction only to be dragged to the ground and held there. Why was Sasuke doing this? He kept his position, using his body weight to trap her.

Her eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness and she watched Naruto's hands lift around the blade, ready to pull it out. She heard the sickening squelch and the blade grating against wood. It had pierced into the ground beneath the exit wound and Naruto groaned weakly. He might kill himself doing that! He could hit something vital. She tried to scream '_no!'_ but only tasted blood and skin between her teeth. How Sasuke was keeping her down despite his injuries-

He was injured.

She slammed her foot against his bad ankle and he flinched, hissing hotly in her ear. But his grip loosened. It was enough.

"Naruto!" she called, scrambling away. She snarled when powerful arms grabbed her back. "Let go! Naruto I'm coming!" She caught a glimpse of Sasuke. His eyes were reflective like a cat. They blared in the darkness but most horrifying they seemed _red_. The Katana clattered to the floor, Naruto's outline sitting up. She had to get to him!

"I won't let him hurt you," Sasuke spoke strongly.

The idiocy! Naruto would rather die than hurt her. What was he talking about?

"I won't let you touch her!" he shouted at Naruto. Hatred dripping from his voice and Sakura blinked. He was trying to protect her. He was trying to protect her from _Naruto_. There was no need!

"_Sasuke_!" she said in disbelief.

"Sasuke?"

She tensed at the fear in Naruto's voice as he repeated Sasuke's name. Desperate urgency dragged him to his feet. It was pure terror.

"Sakura get away from him!"

**...**

**4 years ago**

Naruto's ears had perked up at the word 'weapon'. The idea there was someone else (living, breathing, REAL) used the same way as him generated hurried steps towards the war room. He dived past investigators and under the yellow taped door.

"It seems more like the work of a serial killer than an assassin."

Blood covered the room, splattered up the walls and pooled on the floor. A grotesque and dismembered corpse lay in the centre of the room, Naruto inches away from a discarded elbow. Naruto had seen some terrible things, amputations, corrosive gasses and people blown to pieces. This hit him on a different level. This was not merely the madness of war. Soldiers caught up in the gears.

The person who committed this murder _enjoyed_ it.

His general's nose had been sawed off with a serrated blade, eyes cut out-

'_Mimics the harvesting of those with eye techniques-' _

-littering the body with precise, torturous cuts. The mouth packed with what looked like black tar-

'_Wouldn't have been able to scream.'_

-chopped off at the neck-

'_Occurred post mortem- maybe killer wanted to take it as a trophy? -Possibly but most likely still in a frenzy.' _

-Stomach was carved open, the body bathed in blood-

"_Berserker rage."_

-Naruto tried to breath, to comprehend what he saw next. The most terrifying thing in the room-

_why, why, WHY? _

-small bloody footprints, no bigger than his own, surrounding the body. A child did this. They weren't a weapon like him. This was not like the demon fox, a supernatural abomination. This was the darkness in man's heart. This was the evil in humanity.

"Sasuke," he heard one of the investigators snarl. "Undoubtedly Sasuke."

**...**

Sasuke chuckled darkly at the terror in his opponent's voice. This monster _had_ heard of him. It was delusional pleasure to inspire fear with the demonic atrocity. After the fiasco of his ambush he needed to wield the power of his name. First he misses the mark, second Sakura panics and third and worse she gives away his position. Well that didn't matter now.

He released Sakura, tracking her until she flattened herself against a wall. He wouldn't put it past her to try and get around to Naruto this way. She could be a real pain sometimes...

He had to finish this quickly. His ankle and shoulder were in agony. Hanging from the ceiling and Sakura's little mauver (why couldn't she just co-operate!) had taken its toll. He wanted to get her out the way before he finished him. She obviously didn't know what vile thing was parading around in human skin. He kept his eyes glued to his opponent, watching the chakra flare inside him for a ninjutsu attack.

He smirked _that scared huh?_

It was all over the second blue and blood red eyes connected.

**...**

**Naruto's subconscious**

So _that's_ what it looked like. He was staring at an archaic alpha. The original fear, beast and unspeakable devil. The huge fox bared jagged teeth, terrible eyes set on him. The ancient bars that contain are worn. It's horrible power on command.

"How did you get in here?"

The flesh puppet.

"To think you had this inside you..." Sasuke ignores. He reaches out. Orochimaru was _right_. This bio-weapon...

"No don't!"

Sasuke is going to release it, hand over the seal. It is ironic that the thing keeping the Sound army at bay will destroy the city from its very centre. All substance evaporates from his mind. Nothing matters anymore, civilians, Sakura or even his own life. There is only Orochimaru's will.

_ I WILL BECOME A **MARTYR  
**_

Orochimaru wanted this village destroyed. It wasn't the plan the great ninja had intended but Sasuke thinks he will be forgiven. He is still honouring the agreement.

"Sasuke don't!"

He is hesitating. He has never killed someone who doesn't deserve it. He begins to picture frail grandfathers, pregnant mothers and innocent children. They will die. As much as he tried to make Orochimaru's dream his own, he never had his finger over the trigger.

"Sasuke..."

The blonde boy is closer now. He didn't like that face. The longer he looked at it the more familiar it became.

"_Release me."_

The desolate, hate filled voice of the fox is urging him on. It sounds so different to the host... his hand is on his shoulder now. The energy feels different. Sakura. Her smooth chakra invades the unhallowed room. Knits skin together, stitches wounds closed. He looks to Naruto (_no, demon fox!_) slowly.

"Don't you remember me?"

The blonde boy breaks into a smile and holds out his hand. Suddenly it is in vapid colour, a little boy extending his arm out to him in a clearing. _"Will you be my friend? My only friend?"_

He did remember this boy. They were friends.

His hand dropped away from the seal.

**...**

Sakura had healed him meticulously and after her panic and concern died down she was livid. Naruto understood why for once. Her home had been turned into a battle zone AND she had no idea why the fight diffused. She jittered apprehensively next to him, worried it was going to kick off again. If only he could reassure her the thick tension in the room had nothing to do with bloodlust anymore.

"So you were the one that saved me," Sasuke said slowly. The flickering shadows of candlelight play uncertainty across his face. Naruto pulls his knee in closer, fighting back the biting pain in his chest.

"Yeah I bought you to Sakura-Chan," he replied. He had so much he wanted to explain. He felt like he was in an interrogation sitting across from Sasuke. He couldn't bring himself to look him directly in the eyes. Something about them...

"But you tried to kill me."

Naruto swallowed. "That I did." No point in denying the fact. "So I completely understand."

Sasuke had every right to try and kill him. He got the way Sasuke reacted when he came in the house. They were both going to be okay but it had been close.

"I don't understand." Finally Sasuke shows emotion, running fingers through dark hair in confusion. "Why would you help me?"

Naruto broke into a smile. "Probably the same reason you took your hand off that seal."

_Friendship. _

Sasuke peers at him. Unnerved by cheerful tone and blatant truths but this is Naruto and he will never stop. Naruto thinks they still have a lot of things to make sense of but it won't change his original plan.

"So like I was saying," he adds warmly "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I want to help you get home."

**...**

**7 years ago**

"Bad things happen in this world all the time."

Naruto almost scoffed in agreement. Iruka was right on the mark. He listened closely to the man he viewed as an older brother and (sometimes) the father he never had.

"But that doesn't mean we should become bad people."

Naruto paused mid-bite. Noodles cascade from his chopsticks and drip down into his broth. Bad people are all around him. The enemy nin that tries to nail him with kunai, the odd villager that snaps at him in rage and the faceless bureaucrats that order the demon-fox out of him. Slowly he tries to imagine what good people are like.

"You are kind. You are clever. Naruto, you are strong."

He clings to the lovely words as a hand is placed atop his head. Iruka delivers him a trusting nod. "You decide the rest."

**...**

One minute they were trying to rip out each others throat and the next rigid. Sakura was still shaken. She had never seen anything like it before. It didn't frighten her as much as the news they were going to sneak Sasuke out of Konoha. The prospect had her on edge for all the wrong reasons.

"Sasuke, why did you grab me?"

She traced the outline of his hand, ghosting over her bite mark with feather touch. Sasuke refused her chakra. All he wanted was a bandage. He didn't want her to exhaust herself anymore. Sakura felt herself quiver when he tucked her hair behind her ear. The gesture was far too familiar and affectionate.

_Don't tell me you were trying to protect me Sasuke. I just can't take that. _

It wasn't supposed to be like this. He shouldn't care about her. She shouldn't worry about him. Instead of hate she finds herself straddling something as intangible as missing him.

**...**

"_I will never abandon a friend."_

* * *

AN: Hi everyone, I always wondered what Naruto or Sasuke would have turned out like if they had someone looking after them when they were orphaned. In the manga they are left to their own devices so in this story I ran with the idea of Orochimaru getting to Sasuke early and Iruka being an even bigger influence on Naruto's life. Heh... so if their behaviour doesn't exactly match up that's my justification. Oh was everything easy to understand in this chapter? I'm not very confident with action scenes.


	9. Part I: Chapter IX

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter IX**

* * *

"_You're my best-friend Ino!"  
"We'll I'm not yours!"_

_**...**  
_

**Two and a half years earlier**

The heat wave is unexpected and hits everyone differently in the stretching summer. Some hide indoors, others scramble to finish washing and the magnate class enjoy long necked icy drinks as they fan themselves over trade propositions. The Suna refugees know exactly what to do, settling into a 1pm break when the sun is at its most unforgiving. Their energy in such smouldering weather amazes everyone when they get right back to work.

Sakura and Ino lie on the bank, with the cracked, dried earth and yellow grass that crumples like dried octopus legs. Every Thursday they meet up, class over for Sakura and training finished for Ino. They spill secrets. They argue aimlessly. Discuss the important things like fashion, hair and boys. They are fourteen.

"He's keen on you. You should go out with him."

"Ino!"

Ino is Sakura's sanctuary, an escape from her empty house and heartbreaking depression. She watched her friend turn to lie on her back. The sun kisses every inch of her, wrapping her in a halo glow.

"Do you think we will be friends until we have wrinkles and grey hair?"

Ino's sombre tone startles Sakura but she doesn't doubt a word.

"Hey if Sai couldn't come between us nothing will," she replied smoothly, leaning generously into the sun.

"You promise?"

Sakura gives her a small smile. "Promise."

**...**

"_You are not merely my best-friend. You are my precious sister."  
"Ino... thank you."_

**...**

Sasuke's injuries were healing up nicely. His shoulder on the mend and stomach wound completely healed. He hadn't even scared, not that he didn't have any. One day she has to stop herself tracing his exposed back, revelling in the odd mar to otherwise smooth skin. Utterly embarrassed she muttered something about 'checking chakra channels' but he still raised an eyebrow.

His ankle was in better shape but that isn't saying much. She predicted it would be at least three weeks before he could safely walk. Sasuke was pushing her to fix it. He had made an agreement with Naruto to cross the border and head back to Oto in one month. The two boys spent hours strategizing, Naruto even producing an accurate map of Konoha. She carefully placed her hand over his ankle.

"So I'm just going to give you a boost and-"

"No." Sasuke cut off, moving away. She frowned. This had become a common occurrence. For someone who desperately wanted to be healed he refused aid regularly.

"You have a shift at the hospital soon. You will exhaust yourself," he explained and she huffed at his commanding tone.

"I'm the doctor here not you," she pressed. "More importantly _you_ are the patient not _me_."

She hated the defiance in his eyes, the unsettling finality. They are an ugly affront, irises as dark and pitted as a sharks. It was hard to separate them from the violent dilated pupils of the enemy or a patient on morphine rush.

"It's different here," she continued, wondering if cultural shock was having an effect. "I don't know what kind of doctors you have dealt with all your life in Oto-"

"I was born in Kirigakure."

"Oh..." The new information startles her. She had just assumed Sasuke had been born in Oto. There was something comforting about him being born in the summer rain instead of a dark labyrinth of tunnels.

"When did you start training to be a doctor?"

"About eleven..." She isn't sure when they moved on from politics and started playing twenty questions. Lately curiosity seemed to consume them. It had become a race to figure the other out, the two of them becoming armed to the teeth with inquiry. "When did you start training to be a ninja?"

She wondered if he could smile without making it seem condescending. It will probably always be beyond a man with frown lines instead of smile.

"I can't ever remember not being a ninja," he replied.

"So it's something you have always wanted to do," she said.

She finally sees his smile is more of a grimace. "I didn't say that."

Time slowly trickles into her shift and she finds herself promising him she will be back in eight hours when it finishes.

**...**

**Naruto's Apartment**

"Why did you freak out so much when you heard Sasuke's name?" Sakura asks. She is trying not to drift off on Naruto's couch. She took a double shift at the hospital to stop her superior pulling her hair out and was exhausted. She tried to focus on Naruto throwing clothes he found on the floor of his apartment to the pile on his bed. He was creating a pack for Sasuke. Sakura is touched by how much Naruto is willing to spare and how he thoughtfully adds food, books, a tennis ball and current newspapers into the lump. She doesn't have the heart to tell him cup Ramen isn't the most nutritious thing for someone in recovery either.

"There's a rumour going around that Orochimaru has lost his weapon," Naruto said, pausing to scratch at a crusty stain before shrugging the shirt into the pile.

The statement is left to hang and Sakura questions its relevance. "And?"

"The weapon is called Sasuke."

She absorbs the new information and tries to piece together some things. She comes up painfully short.

"I have some things to ask him..." Naruto trailed off. She is only half listening when a single word in his mused ramblings piqued her interest: "Eyes." It drives her to pull up over the arm rest, shoving wisps of hair from her face.

"Once..." he says carefully, almost afraid of sounding absurd. "They seemed _red_."

She swallows. His eyes had once seemed red to her as well. Her small nod is enough to make Naruto's brow crease with tense curiosity as he tumbled to his bed. "They're frightening," he finally said.

Sakura muttered, "I just hate them."

There is a stretching silence before she speaks in gratitude, "We are so lucky nobody reported anything."

"No kidding," Naruto said evenly, pressing a cheek into his ratty pillow. "Sakura you look tired."

She pouts. He takes no mind of her with a big yawn and an offhand, "You should go visit Ino."

Ferocity churns deep inside her like a propeller. It splits her open violently, exposing black secrets, icy lies and painful un-clotted wounds. In one sweeping motion she is on her feet with a snarl. "How could you say that so carelessly!"

He sits up in horror, throwing a hand over his mouth as if trying to recapture words long spoken. "Sakura-"

"No!" she snapped. She all but bolted out the door.

**...**

**Sakura's apartment**

"What are you doing?"

It is the first time she had seen Sasuke panic. The book he was hunched over was quickly shut and pencil in his hand tucked away. He turned on her angrily.

"You're charka is a mess," he snapped. "I could hardly recognise you."

She folded her arms irritably. She couldn't deal with this after arguing with Naruto. She focused on the book Sasuke had in his hand. A small exercise book her mother used for recipes.

"You said you had an eight hour shift that was 18 hours ago. Have you even slept?"

She doesn't let his argumentative tone deter her, "Were you just writing?"

He has an enviable poker face. The type interrogators haemorrhage over. She wished she could lie so easily. With a sigh she takes the book from him and upon opening she is seeing double. The recipes have been copied and she keeps her face schooled at the childish almost incomprehensible scratches across the page. Most ninja were illiterate. Only memorising the kanji they needed for seals. Sasuke was no different.

She flicks through a couple more pages before he snatches the book back from her irritably. He crinkles the spine like a criminal trying to burn the evidence, erasing the offending article from existence. But she has seen enough.

"You've been practicing this for a while."

Her deduction earns a defeated sigh as he throws the book down before crossing his arms. "Well between the physiotherapy and exercising I haven't got much else to do."

He had no need to defend himself. She reaches for the book, finds a page he hasn't copied yet and smoothed it out. "I can help you if you want. I think it's great what you are doing."

She spends the next hour correcting his hold on the pencil, trying not to bite her lip when their fingers brush.

**...**

It didn't take Sasuke very long to come to the conclusion Naruto was the most annoying person on the planet.

"Is this some kind of joke?" he grumbled. In his hand was a bright red shirt with an obnoxious leaf insignia across it. What a thing to give an Oto soldier. Naruto simply smiled and Sasuke couldn't help but think that grin would be more agreeable if he punched out a couple of teeth.

"What's wrong with it?" he asked innocently and again annoying. He didn't even _know_. Searching through more clothes he discovered EVERYTHING was brightly coloured. Naruto was clearly allergic to neutrals, shades and decent fashion sense.

"So question," Naruto said, tossing the tennis ball at Sasuke. "Are you _the_ Sasuke."

Sasuke caught the ball in one hand, raising an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Ya' know," Naruto blurted with a hand wave before the ball was bounced in return. "Sasuke the Oto assassin- first chosen- super soldier- weapon. That Sasuke."

Sasuke merely blinked. He barely caught the ball when it was volleyed back to him. "Because that's okay!" Naruto said quickly. "I'm a weapon myself. I just..."

Naruto leaned in, Sasuke horrified at his closeness. The blonde boy whispered, "I think you were inside my head."

Sasuke can feel a headache coming on.

**...**

So Sasuke had come clean about the weapon thing. It was something blown out of proportion for propaganda. Elements were true but most of it was a bloated lie. Sasuke revealed he had the ability to step inside people's minds. It was an unimpressive battle jutsu but useful for gathering information. He seemed uneasy about the demon fox but in the end he was the same little boy who had agreed to be his friend all those years ago.

Also he was annoying and Naruto hated him.

"That's not how you do it."

One writing lesson from Sakura and he was chief editor, picking at Naruto's mistakes. It took everything not to drive the pencil through his eye.

"I don't care," Naruto said through gritted teeth. Why he had agreed to join in with 'writing practice' was beyond him. He hated study. People always read his form out to him anyway. As far as he was concerned all a ninja needed to know was how to make a signature. "It looks just the same."

Sasuke snorted. "You wrote mother like horse."

"I caught the ball more times than you!" Naruto snapped, throwing the pencil down. Sasuke pursed his lips in disagreement.

"I won."

Naruto hated him. "You did not!"

**...**

Sakura came back to Sasuke and Naruto arguing over how to fold a map. She couldn't stress their idiocy enough. They were making death threats to each other over _how to correctly fold up the map_. Her house was probably going to be punched into a crater when they actually started deciding the best route of escape. Amidst the squabbling Naruto flashed her a grin, only for his face to fall when he realised she was still upset. Sasuke took the opportunity to fold the map and hit Naruto over the head with it. She would have never picked him to behave so childishly.

"Tea?"

She feels dead on her feet. A soothing cup before bed might just settle the aching in her muscles and jittering eyes.

"Yes please Sakura!" Naruto chimes, eager to see a peace offering where there was only sifted obligation.

"No," Sasuke grunts and by the time she comes back with Naruto's tea the atmosphere in her parent's bedroom has changed entirely. Naruto and Sasuke are leaning close together, Sasuke speaking low. He falls silent when she enters the room and Naruto seems nothing short of crushed when he looks at her.

"Sakura have you been taking extra shifts at the hospital? Are you okay?"

With a huff she endures a lecture from Naruto, several apologies for the other day and general concerns about how she is handling everything. Eventually he talks her to bits, makes it impossible to stay angry at him and exhausts her into forgiveness. She hugs him at the door, makes promises she won't keep and waves him goodbye. When the door clicks shut she has nothing left driving her but a sting of irritation against Sasuke.

"I would appreciate you not making Naruto worry over nothing. He has enough to deal with," she addresses icily.

He keeps his arms folded coolly. "Then stop making me worry."

She mirrors his body language defensively, too tired to even try to make sense of him anymore.

"Let's check how your physiotherapy has been going."

"Go to sleep."

She tugged at the red band around her wrist. He could be so difficult. "Not until I've done this."

He gives her a flint hard glare but allows her to press up against his shoulder, pinning his arm to the wardrobe wall.

"Does that hurt?"

Sasuke shook his head as but she could tell he was holding back. The wound was probably still tender. He shouldn't lie. So she pressed harder. He makes a 'tsk' sound and she looks up at him to see the pain register on his face.

"Oh..."

She is startled. The eyes she though so dark and pitted are a torrent of rain. Close up they are ringed with a grey that makes her think of stormy days spent at the window, safe and curled up indoors.

"You're eyes..." she breathes. She is absolutely awestruck at their change in nature she isn't able to stop herself. "They're beautiful..."

Slowly his mouth curves up at the edges, disbelieving irony dancing across his features. Something you can only understand nose to nose. "That's the last thing people call them."

She snaps out of her dazed state. She is sure she is flushing all over, blood pounding in embarrassment. "I have to go to sleep."

She makes a dash to the door but stops at his call, "Sakura". She barely turns to look at him. She doesn't understand how his blank expression can still seem so incredibly smug. "Goodnight."

**...**

The early morning light is so bright it leaves dazed imprints against shut eyelids. She rubs her eyes only to freeze when light coils against the shape of a girl. She will never lose her halo.

"Hey forehead," is greeted. Sakura bites her lip as long locks of blonde hair are shifted out of painfully crystal blue eyes.

"Ino."

It doesn't surprise her Ino got in without her knowing. She was as light on her feet as she was quiet. Sure her thin body had slid through some crack.

"Long time no see," Ino teases but there is a rawness in her voice that could only speak of hurt. Sakura feels like she is seven all over again, shrinking in on herself, shyly trying to shuffle away from the light.

"What have you been hiding?" is said cheekily and before Sakura can reach for her, Ino whips around and disappears from the room. Sakura knows exactly where to look for her, wondering if Ino has been on to her all along. Of course she had. There was no keeping secrets form her. In her parent's room she fists her hands as Ino stares at a sleeping Sasuke, head tilted slightly as if contemplating. "He's very handsome. Don't you think?"

Sakura tried to build up her courage. To say to Ino what she had been trying to do for over two years. "Ino I-"

"How are you able to sleep?" Of course Ino stubbornly didn't give her a chance.

"Excuse me?" Sakura whispered, caught off guard.

"With him just in the other room... when the lights go out it must be so _frustrating_."

Sakura went beet red when she pieced together Ino's scandalous words.

"Ino," she whispered in mortification.

Ino just grinned knowingly. "You like him."

"No." Her voice is hollow point. "He's from Oto."

It is spoken as casually as the leaves fall in summer, "So?"

Sakura's bottom lip gives a traitorous wobble. A misery courses through her and leaves her shaking. The hard, unforgiving part of her is gently being worn away in her subconscious. In tiny patches she hadn't noticed at first. She wants to steel them, make them steadfast again. Otherwise she will be lost in madness.

"So if you don't like him I guess you won't mind if I do this?"

Ino leaned over a pressed a gentle kiss against Sasuke's lips. Sasuke didn't stir but Sakura did. Hot shame flushed her face. She did mind. She minded _a lot_. Over these past weeks she had begun to think of Sasuke as hers. Her secret. Her burden. It took Ino to see there was something much stronger there.

Ino struts away but not before giving a wink, "Come pay me a visit sometime."

**...**

Sasuke doesn't know what he's done wrong as Sakura knocks the wind out of him with fresh sheets.

"Change those," she hissed. "Don't make any noise _AT ALL_. There will be sweeps today."

She thinks him incompetent and he bites his tongue at the snide remark. The shy girl of last night is gone, the anger in this new Sakura growing out like the edges of a cigarette burn.

He spends the day settling into his routine of writing, doing exercises and hiding his chakra at any suspicious presence. Naruto does not come and neither do the sweeps. He wants to snap this at her when the door opens. He massaged his forehead grumpily; she has taken a double shift _again_.

He focuses for a moment only to fall into alarm at the sudden seeping, swirl of energy. It is like the ripples of a thrashing mammal in water, faint and pushed to the edges. Although not as talented as Karin she had taught him a few things about chakra. She would call this rot, a bleed.

He is in the living room in moments. Sakura is deathly pale, her body gleaming with sweat in the moonlight. He watches her chest heave for air and the dazed look in her eyes. "I don't... feel so good."

He catches her just before she hits the ground.

**...**

"No..."

It creaks out of her, like the slow groan of oak. "No..." The word has such a tired patience, a desperate hum.

_You need to stay warm. _

She doesn't listen to the voice, rebelliously stretching her captured arm. She is wrapped in cocoon, a fat spoiled silk worm waiting to be spun.

"Ino..." she sobs out. _Ino, Ino, Ino_. There is a fissure, another crack to break into.

_You keep saying that..._

Sakura tumbles in on herself. She is lost in a dark pocket of time she can never escape from.

_Who is she? _

"My sister," she tries to gobble the words back up with gaping breaths.

_Trust me, tell me. _

_Him_. He's threaded the delicate, gossamer case she built up around her as a prison. She trembles at such steady hands.

_What happened to your sister? _

**...**_  
_

**Two years earlier **

Ino ducked between the tunnel system. _6b, 6b, 6b_. It had become her mantra. 6b, in 6b is the supplies room. The supplies room is the heart of the operation. If she blows it Konoha is safe, the city won't be breached. The skin she has slipped into is packed. The earth presses into her as she slides through the ribboned cracks of the tunnel, the tapering roots of the Oto tree. _6b, 6b, 6b_.

She knocks out two guards with a well placed index and middle finger to the neck and smiles in the face of the rest when they give her clearance without batting an eyelid. She navigates her way to 6b, dropping the wire and rigging the paper bombs. She has 15 seconds to run once it is set. Her jutsu was weakening, pulling her out the body so she had to act fast.

Then it all goes horribly wrong. Her marks name is called. One of the workers wants her to throw him a pick axe. She picks up the tool, sends it soaring his way. He dodges it and instead slams her against a crate.

"What are you doing?" she snarls. "I'm on your side."

He is smothered in earth. "Stop the act. I know."

His hands snap around her own. Any efforts to kick away are met with broken fingers and her back shoved painfully against the wall.

"Body surfer," he sneers. "Mind walker."

Suddenly dirt is cramming into her, filling her to the brink until she chokes.

Her voice almost wavers, but she kept her conviction strong. "You won't... kill a comrade."

He smirks and the last thing she sees is the space between teeth.

**...**

One moment Ino was slumped in the chair before Sakura, looking almost as if she had dozed off. The mission was going to plan. They had no problem with the wire. Ino was making comfortable time for body manipulation. Most of all Sakura was on hand to heal any injuries quick as possible. Then there was a cut cross her neck, a slit almost as thin as a strand of hair. Sakura stared at it for a moment in shock, not sure if it had always been there. Then thick rivulets of blood ran down her best friend's throat. The only family she had left was decapitated. Sakura screamed so loudly another medical team rushed in. It was too late. Ino was gone and took a piece of Sakura with her.

Sakura is shaking. Partly due to coming clean about Ino and partly from chakra fever. Tears have piped at her eyes. Stress, guilt, exhaustion and misery all contribute to body racking sobs. Why hadn't she done more to save her sister? Her hands were stained in blood from all the people lost in her care at the hospital. She can feel a hand stroke back her hair but the most sympathetic thing about Sasuke was his ears. She had poured out everything to him.

In shady knowledge she is sick. Sick enough to not see things for what they are. It is just enough to let her hallucinate a pained look of understanding in stormy eyes and a gentle kiss against her forehead.

**...**

**For our tomorrow, they gave their today.**

**-Here lies Yamanaka Ino.**

* * *

AN: Ino died :( I struggled so much with this chapter because even though it is important to the plot, I didn't want her to have to die :(


	10. Part I: Chapter X

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter X**

* * *

"Do you think it's ever going to end?"

"Everything ends."

**...**

**Two years earlier **

She points at the Southern Cross, tracing the heavens between fingertips. Her eyes are streaked with tears but this is the last time she will allow herself to cry openly. "Ino," she finally whispered.

The Southern Cross belongs to Ino. She'd have wanted that one, the big show off. She laughs bitterly through the pain. Yeah, that one had Ino all over it.

"Sakura, I'm so sorry."

Naruto's words are genuine but they did not comfort her. Nobody's apologies did. She kept imaging the look on Mr. Yamanaka's face at the funeral, the helpless contempt that had strung through his features when he shook the Hokage's hand. _Thank you sir, for taking my little girl. Thank you. _

"Sorry," she had said to this broken man. "Sorry," she had said to the Mother who wailed when the coffin was lowered. Who hysterically cried, "How will she breathe? How can she breathe!?" No, 'Sorry' never helped anyone. Not when there was so much anger. Ino would never pet the soft fur of her cat, eat a peach or have her first boyfriend. She would never smell the first rain of spring; feel the warmth of the sun and the gentle caress of wind. She would never grow old like they had both promised, staying close until they were wrinkled and grey.

Oto brutally stole that from her sister.

She stands up, wiping her clothes. New life rising from the desolated memorial Naruto and her covert. "Naruto when you're out there kill a couple Oto for me okay?"

That _would_ make her feel better.

"Sakura..." His voice is breathy, disbelieving. She doesn't care if she has tumbled from the pedestal he put her on. Her decent would only land her into obsessive medical training. Save as many Konoha nin as she can. Spite the rest.

She walks home into the abyss with a casual, "Make them suffer."

**...**

"Not war."

**...**

**Sakura's house **

Her bedroom is in a tail spin. She had been running a chakra fever that started on the way home. Over exertion can cause chakra to spill freely and she was lucky her deposit didn't completely empty or she would be dead. It takes a few blinks to settle, objects leaping back to their rightful place. She is drawn to the foreign, a mess of dark hair at the foot of her bed. Sasuke...

She reaches out to touch his hair. "You shouldn't do that to someone in service," is said evenly, halting her progress. Such a prank cost people important body parts. But Sakura hadn't meant to tease.

"You're awake," she mumbled, shuffling back to the warm, open mouth of her blanket. He cracked his neck stiffly. "Did you sleep on the floor like that?"

He stands, careful to put his weight on his good side. "Pretty much."

"You're so lucky to be able to sleep sitting up," she said. What she wouldn't give to catch a moment shut eye at her desk.

"Not really," he replied mildly. "It's a curse when you are on lookout."

He gives her a searching look. It takes all her will not to cower behind a pillow at his prying gaze. "Feeling better?"

She nods slowly, standing up and ignoring the ache in her legs as she made her way over to him. "Thank you."

He does not return her hug, keeps his body rigid and she almost backs off as if burned. She can't imagine Sasuke is the cuddling type. That didn't mean he didn't deserve one after last night. It is unbearable to think what could have happened without him.

She murmurs into his chest, "I'm going back to the hospital-"

He hisses and snakes a strong arm around her. She doesn't feel trapped, she _is_ trapped.

"No," he said firmly. She fists her hands in the fabric of Naruto's shirt, harrowed by the fact she was more comfortable with this situation than she should be.

"You didn't let me finish," she said quickly. "I'm going to get checked over."

He raised an eyebrow, mistrust knitting through his features. "Is that all?"

She nodded, taking advantage of his loosened grip to step back. "Promise."

At the door she cast an eye over him guiltily. He was tired and it was all her fault. "You can sleep in my bed today... if you want."

She didn't exactly regret the suggestion; she just wished she wasn't in this situation at all. She gave a hurried, "later."

He sat on her bed with a stern, "Sooner than."

She found herself repeating it over in her head all the way to the hospital.

**...**

She comes back to a mess of sheets and an empty bed. It takes her a moment to adjust to the cool darkness of the room, the way the shutters bend warm lines of light across her bed and floor. She gasps when she is grabbed from behind. Unlike her, Sasuke lets his hands wander low, pulling her in from the waist. A terrible heat pools in her stomach when she is pressed against him. The feeling only intensifies when she turns into him and pushes her palm against his bare chest. She blushes and fidgets but he keeps his hands on her lower back.

"So they gave me soldier pills and two days recuperation," she muttered and bit her lip when she realised he was focusing on her mouth in his dreary state. He'd clearly been asleep moments before she got in the room, he must have moved before sensing her.

"I have to take half a pill before eating to promote long burning energy. Then we worked out a long term solution to my chakra expenditure." She didn't normally rant. She knew he didn't care about replenishment programs or subtle tweaks to rosters.

"But for now I just need plenty of rest," she finished lamely. He raised an eyebrow and she was taken aback when she was shoved against the bed, Sasuke rolling off her to be at her side. She turned to face him slowly and tried to catch her surprise, "Well say something."

"I don't talk much," he said honestly.

She found herself edging closer, "you talk to me."

He shrugged, "true."

She couldn't stop herself smiling when he closed his eyes but was in a fluster when he started getting under _her_ covers.

"Hey!" she said in alarm. "What are you doing?"

He raised his head in confusion. "Going to sleep..."

"Not here, not while I am."

"You said I could sleep in your bed _today_," he replied. "Last time I checked the sun was still out."

She gaped at him. Technically he was right but the situation had changed. For someone who wanted her to rest so badly he seemed bent on making it impossible.

He yawned. "I can't just go back to the wardrobe now I've been in a real bed. How cruel."

With that he turned over, wrapping an arm around one of her pillows possessively. After the shock wore off she gave him a timid poke. He couldn't be serious...

"Sasuke?"

When he didn't stir she poked him a little harder. Her mind plotted and decided to push him off the bed. She had an elbow to his back when he finally moved. His tone was a warning but overall amused, "Oh? You want to fight?"

**...**

Sasuke sneered when he pinned her. It had been easy to mauver on top of her and he was careful not to rest his full weight on her. She is so tiny and petite he feels like he has a hatching bird cupped in his palm. She pouted, clearly enjoying herself. If she thought that would win her sympathy, she was wrong.

"Civilian," he teased. "You're weak as a kitten."

She stopped pouting and delivered a quick punch. _I need to stop underestimating her_ he admitted to himself, rubbing his sore nose. He grumbled, "That's not to say you aren't enthusiastic..."

She went to hit him again only for him to catch her fist and hold her against the bed. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself. Although amusing he couldn't help but feel pitted disappointment. She thought he would honestly cause her pain? He slacked his grip around her wrists and leaned his forehead against her gently.

"I wouldn't hurt you," he whispered softly.

She opens her eyes slowly, a brilliant sea-foam green. The exact shade is unique to her, something he finds the need to echo. "I think you are the one..." he murmured "with beautiful eyes."

The playful mood was lost in an instant. Her eyes glaze over, arms tangle around her body like the delicate twig thatching of a nest. He moves off her quickly, sensing something dangerously fragile.

"I can't do this..." she breathed.

He frowned slightly, "do what?"

She just shakes her head, curls into herself. "Hey..." He places a hand on her shoulder, wondering if he will have to coax her again like last night. "Is it about your sister? I'm sorry about what happened."

She is pale. He is worried she is running a fever again. She wrings her fingers, battling something deep within.

"It's not just that," she finally speaks.

He waits for her to say more. Instead she shakes her head incessantly.

"Just go," she is almost begging. "Please go."

Sensing her distress he nods. "Okay."

**...**

Sakura furiously scratches at the page. Paper is precious and she has scarred over a dozen sheets in the past months. At first her drafts had been abrupt; they would be found lacking but suffice. Now she was blotting thick words, struggling to actualise single letters. Each one is loaded and unhappy. They choke on the page.

It has become ritual to throw her pen down in defeat.

**...**

She finds herself gravitating to her parent's room on a rainy night. Draped over her shoulders is her one, good thick blanket. Something she claimed back when Sasuke's health started to pick up. She grapples at the door with a deep incision of guilt. It is as if Sasuke has bitten her into two people. Sakura the patriot, whom has lost almost everything. Then the other part of her, a mere sixteen year old girl. Wrapped up in the covers she feels foolishly protected and entertains the childish. She only knocks once.

"How's the writing going?" she greeted. Sasuke is hunched over, pencil in hand. She sits a little too close, shoulder to shoulder.

He leans back, shuts the book. "Better than yours."

She stiffened. Brutal anger rose up in her like a tribal inferno. She wished for jagged teeth and talons, anything to dash out his throat for daring to noticing something so personal. Instead she settled for a bitter, "Good for you."

There is a strong silence between them. She wouldn't call it comfortable but it was safe. That upsets her even more but her anger is laced with confusion. What to do next? How to act? She is alien to her own emotions, trying to soak up imaginary ideals. How can she understand when she has never weighed her experience against another?

"Have you ever lost anyone important?"

They have asked each other a lot of things but this hit differently. His body becomes tense, voice raw. For the first time Sasuke is exposed. "Yes," he answered. "My parent's, my brother."

He is dangerous. Makes her feel heartbreak she shouldn't. He has her pressed against the bed again with a hot intimacy she fears more than anything. The pity that has risen up in her must be explained away with the obvious. "We have all lost in war."

He shuts his eyes. He almost seems peaceful. "This is different..." his words linger in cryptic. "Over."

Before she can ask him how, he cuts her off, "I lied to Naruto."

She is thankful for the out, "About?"

When he opens his eyes, she is not greeted by familiar darkness. His eyes are oxblood red and three commas that dot each eye. It is surreal. It is fear.

He sounds out of breath, running on a shot of adrenaline. "I've never shown anyone before..."

Her mind is reeling. Blood traits are rare but eye techniques were virtually non-existent. People like Sasuke were hunted to extinction.

"I lied to Naruto about this. I want to tell him the truth," Sasuke said. His eyes returned to normal when he blinked. "I don't know why. I feel I owe it to him."

Is that why he told her as well? Somehow she doubts it and entertains the absurd idea of trust. "He'll forgive you," she reassures before her thoughts center on the bloody nature of his eyes. "What clan are you from?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know."

"What's your family name?"

Was he a Hyuuga? It was one of the few eye techniques she knew of. Knowing Sasuke's last name might give her some clue.

He speaks bluntly, "I don't have one."

He doesn't trust her. It brings disappointment to her tone, "Fine you don't have to tell me-"

"No, I honestly don't know!"

The outburst startles them both. It has him rubbing his face with embarrassment before mumbling, "Orochimaru says I don't need one anyway. I can't remember." He looks vacant before continuing, "I was pretty young when I lost my family. There are big chunks of my life that are just... missing. After they died I just... shut down. Forgetting them is what hurts the most."

She listened to him navigate through his pain. She has never been an overly dramatic person but when her hand slips into his, she knows.

_I am doomed. _

**...**

**Konoha graveyard**

Sakura sits cross legged in the earth. Ino is patient with her, waits her out. She blurts it all out. Everything she is afraid to feel. Everything she knows she shouldn't. She has missed Ino so much.

Most importantly she tells the truth. "Ino... I don't know what to do..."

**...**

Sasuke had always understood girls to be a distraction. Their soft, curvy bodies and flirting eyes bedlam. It didn't factor in to his revenge so was denied constantly. Now however, he had no choice but to focus on what was right in front of him. He let himself stray to Sakura Haruno.

Over these past weeks they had grown closer. He went from despising her to having nothing but respect. Trust was something he had struggled with his entire life but with Sakura it was beginning to grow unquestionable. The fact he was alive at all was living proof of her care. Although disagreeable he found her witty and a challenge. He was ensnared by everything she had gone through but only because he was drawn to the strength she showed despite this.

Back in Oto he had earned the nickname 'untouchable'. It was not taken straight from the battlefield but gifted by peers that viewed him as beyond human and therefore above petty desires like money and women. 'Untouchable' was just a charade though. He had always known himself to be primal, just another man. He dotes on her image. Although skinny there is a generous shape about Sakura. Everything she wears cinches at the waist, her figure conspiring to drive him insane. She has brilliant green eyes, wide and expressive. He loses himself when she looks up at him through long lashes. Her feminine features become even softer and compulsion drives him to capture her full, pouting lips with his own.

So in the early glow of one morning he finally kisses her. It is nothing like him, gentle and careful. That makes it no less fervent but something static. A memory they can hold onto forever. For a moment she kisses back, feels it too. Then she jut's as if he has run chidori through her. The hand that covers her mouth is quivering. "Sasuke..."

He leans in again, cupping the back of her head. He can understand why she is scared. So many things are working against them but she _felt_ that. She had too.

Then her next words are liquid nitrogen in his veins.

"I'm engaged."

**...**

"_Sakura... I've been meaning this for a while. Ya' know, the sands of time are fickle and all that."_

"_?"_

"_What I'm trying to say is... will you marry me?"_

"_..."_

"_Sakura?"_

* * *

AN: I plotted Sakura was engaged from the start, I swear! *Dodges rocks thrown by angry readers* There will be more details next chapter. Review and let me know what you think.


	11. Part I: Chapter XI

AN: I want to say a special thank you to all the wonderful reviewers. You are making this story a truly amazing experience :)

* * *

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter XI**

* * *

"_Come on Sakura, you're killing me here. A guy who gets down on one knee deserves an answer ya' know."_

**...**

**Two years earlier**

Sakura was turning heads. Apprehensively she straightened the hem of her mother's silk dress, careful not to smudge her charcoal lined eyes with a nervous hand. She had spent hours applying cracked powder and salvaging eye-shadows, relics from before the war. Everybody probably thought she looked ridiculous. That getting all dressed up to go on a date in such times was selfish. The judgement was only subconscious however as men stepped aside to let her past and a little old lady with a voice as soft as butter called her 'beautiful' to the agreement of her husband. She rushed past them, trying to dispel the jittering beat of her heart. _You shouldn't be doing this_ it prattled. _This isn't right_.

Then she went past the Yamanaka's home. Ino's mother was out front. After the death of her daughter the woman would stare into space for hours, donning an expression far worse than heartbreak. There was nothing behind her eyes, voice unused for weeks. In the dark pocket of her husband's mind he knew he had lost both of his girls.

"You're first date?"

Sakura halted. That sugar-coated tone had been unmistakable. Mrs. Yamanaka was smiling. Tears rolled down the woman's face but her unmistakable smile was so brilliant all Sakura could see was Ino. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought about how excited her best-friend would have been for this day and how the broken mother before her channeled that. Ino would have done her hair, her make-up and let her borrow any pair of shoes. She would have teased mercilessly throughout but wished well. Sakura gave a shaky nod and it was like a fissure of time. It was scar tissue, never to fully heal but today, with that smile, it hurt just that little bit less.

Sakura recovered from the woman's knowing grin, the misery of her tears. "Stop making me cry!" Sakura said shrilly. "You'll ruin my make-up!"

Sakura let Mrs. Yamanaka's laugh follow her out the district.

**...**

She heard him before she saw him. One wolf-whistle and she was glad the carefully applied blush hid the real flush in her cheeks. He looked smart in uniform but somehow just as wild. She supposed someone who signed up for the armed forces at 15 had to be.

"You look stunning," he said with a toothy smile. Somehow she was able to play it cool, leaning down to pet Akamaru.

"You don't look half bad yourself."

**...**

"_Of course I'll marry you Kiba." _

**...**

**Sakura's House**

Engaged? Sasuke did not wear confusion well. It spelled vulnerability, equalled despicable weakness. Sakura reached out and he finally gathered up her expression with the few fragments of pride he had left. She was looking at him in _pity_. Defences up, like in battle, he snatched his hand away. "Well I've got a girlfriend," he snapped back. "I've had her in every position."

It was Sakura's turn to be shocked. She almost chocked, turned away from him. He didn't miss her dry and bitter, "charming."

The atmosphere had turned toxic.

**...**

**Konoha Hospital**

Sakura curled up in the break room. Her emotional suffering of guilt, hurt and regret felt as intertwined as spaghetti in a can. Sasuke had ignored her all morning. She wanted nothing more than to talk with him again but then she thought of Kiba. He was due to return in a month and what was she doing to him? He had loyally been sending letters, stayed by her side through tough times and she repaid him by healing up one of his enemies?

(She wondered when she had stopped calling Sasuke HER enemy but that just made her head spin even more.)

Then she dwelled on the most dangerous thought that had been going through her head non-stop. The one she entertained constantly by biting her bottom lip.

She had liked kissing Sasuke.

**...**

**Sakura's house**

Sasuke hissed. "What do you want?"

"Well aren't we pleasant this morning," Naruto said cheerfully. He broke off some of his roll to share with Sasuke. The boy seemed stunned for a moment before taking the bread. He pushed over his own porridge and Naruto had a spoonful out of sifted obligation. He grumbled at the Salty taste, Sakura's trademark.

"Ugh," he complained. "Hate it when Sakura puts salt on the porridge."

Sasuke's teeth grindingly bad mood returned instantly. He obviously _really_ hated salt on his porridge. Naruto sighed. Sasuke was moodier than half the girls he knew.

"So did Sakura tell you?" Naruto questioned, reaching into his bag to change the subject to maps and escape routes.

Sasuke choose that moment to crack his fingers, "about the engagement?"

Naruto crinkled the map in his fisted hand, cursing as he tried to smooth it out again. Engagement was _not_ a nice word. It made him worry and/always angst. He pouted irritably. "She told you about that huh?"

Naruto couldn't help but feel like he was in an interrogation again at Sasuke's emotionless expression. Obviously the answer was yes. If he didn't know any better he would say Sasuke was as unhappy with the situation as he was.

Naruto sniffed. "I don't know what she sees in him."

**...**

**One and a half years earlier**

Sakura rehearsed her break up with Kiba. She let him down gently at the empty seat of the breakfast table. She practiced diplomacy to her lone reflection and whispered apologises in the barren night. On his first day of leave she was ready with her speech. She didn't love him. It would only hurt both of them in the end.

Her speech went MIA when she knocked on his door and he dragged her inside. Instantly she was hugged by grandma, chased by family dogs, fussed over by sisters and complimented by a father who kept repeating 'she's a doctor!' to aunties and uncles who all cooed in amazement or sneered at Kiba with the undertone of _she's too good for you_. Kiba took the bait every single time until she was forced to pat his arm to calm him down.

"I don't care what any of you say!" he defended. "I'm crazy about her."

Crazy was the watchword as Kiba's house guaranteed noisy chaos. His mother begged her not to mind the large family when dinner was served.

"You assholes always treat this house like a hotel!" she barked. "I can't get rid of you!"

They all jeered at her, some feigning hurt and others with comedic imitation. Sakura was in a fit of giggles when Grandpa aimed a baked potato at his daughters head before whistling innocently when a glare was sent his way.

"What must you think of us?" a sister finally mused over the dishes. Sakura stopped laughing at Kiba fighting with Akamaru over the dishcloth. "We must seem like such a bunch of noisy barbarians!"

Sakura looked from the busy kitchen, back to the almost full table. The house was a din but compared to the silence of her own it was like listening to a beautiful symphony. There would be screaming, sympathy, rage, laughing, crying, consoling, arguing but there would never be isolation.

"You're all perfect," she said with a grin before helping Kiba's plight.

She was a deathly lonesome girl in the heart of a bustling home. She would learn to love him.

**...**

**Sakura's house**

Sasuke was usually right in his suspicions. He had believed Naruto was engaged to Sakura. It was the first time he was pleased to be proven wrong. "I thought you two were together."

Naruto spluttered and turned a heinous shade of red. "No, no, no, no! I mean- not 'no' like I wouldn't like to be- NO! That's not what I meant... Well- No. I, I," Naruto babbled. When Sasuke looked closely the boy was actually sweating. "Ya' know!" Naruto threw his hands up as if that statement proved finality. It didn't take long before his embarrassment shifted to anger. "She's too young to be engaged anyway! Damn Kiba why couldn't that dog just wait! She's a sister to me! Bastard."

Sasuke leaned back, the new information churning through his head. _Kiba huh..._

Naruto looked satisfied with his rant and interrupted Sasuke's thoughts quizzically. "Is that why you were so upset when I came in?"

Naruto was not without his accidentally uncanny nature. When Sasuke was honest, learning Sakura had a fiancée dented his pride but he was disappointed more than anything. He wasn't sure what he was feeling...

Sasuke forced a lie by sulking, "my shoulder hurts."

He flinched when Naruto punched him in the arm with a cooed "Awwwwww." Before an entirely condescending, "Toughen up princess. We have an escape to plan!"

**...**

Sakura asked timidly. "Does your ankle hurt?"

Sasuke was still ignoring her. She hated what it was doing to her, the shrinking posture, waning voice and pliable expressions. Why was she the one on trial? According to Sasuke, he had a girlfriend. She was on the cusp of figuring out if he was always brutally honest or just one spectacular lie.

"Question," he finally said. It wasn't something he asked, but demanded. "If you didn't have a fiancée, would you have kissed me back?"

She exhaled a shaky breath. She could recognise his attempt to salvage himself. She was removed from the equation now. It didn't make the question any less potent.

Unable to take refuge in denial she nodded slowly. She wasn't expecting him to smile. It made her feel forgiveness and had her shyly smiling back. Then he frowned and she descended into panic. She knew that look.

"Someone's coming," he said evenly and she was on edge. There had been sweeps _yesterday_. The only reason they would come back is if they had discovered Sasuke. They both stood, Sakura taking measured steps to the door and Sasuke reaching for his Katana. Even though she had warning the knock on the door made her jump. She was only settled when Sasuke murmured he wouldn't let anything happen to her. It gave her the strength to admit she was only worried for him. She was prepared for a dozen armed sweepers but met with something far more menacing. Two of the best noses in the village were before her, able to track Oto nin across the border. There was an onslaught of barking and a canine grin, "hello beautiful."

It barely came out in a shocked whisper, "Kiba?"

**...**

"No dogs in the house!"

Kiba watched his fiancée disappear behind the door and she may as well have slapped him in the face. Akamaru was so much more than just a 'dog'. They were partners and he owed his life to the four-legged soldier. He thought Sakura had understood that. He watched her wrestle with the door, Akamaru trying to push his way in, excited to see Sakura.

"Why are you back so early?!"

She hardly sounded pleased. It wasn't the reunion he had imagined when his leave was announced early. He couldn't help but think this would plague him like the silence that had followed his proposal. _She said yes_, he reminded himself. _That's all that matters_.

Akamaru finally got past the door. When Kiba followed, he wasn't hugged. In fact, his kiss was completely rejected when she ran to her parent's door. She flattened herself against it, Akamaru jumping up and scratching furiously around her.

"Kiba please," she begged. Kiba tried not to tense his jaw.

"Akamaru cut it out," he ordered but recognised the urgency in Akamaru's barks. It was the same call he used before an Oto ambush or when they were tracking enemy platoons. When Akamaru started to growl, his stomach was in knots. He could smell it too.

There was an Oto soldier in this house.

"He'll contaminate the autopsy!" Sakura wailed.

Taken aback, Kiba loudly ordered Akamaru to fall back, the dog lying on the ground instantly. That explained the smell in the house and her jittery manner. Sakura slid down the door, burying her face in her hands. "I hate... their eyes. I just..."

It was a moment of weakness. Something he was never privy to. He carefully scooped her up, leading her to the couch. Finally she hugged him. He wished she would completely let go and bury her head against his neck. He had seen her do it with Naruto in moments of pure affection and took it as a sign she felt safe. Something she should NOT feel with the vessel of the demon fox. He would be glad when Naruto was snuffed out for good. That demon fox was dangerous.

"You do autopsies now?" he asked, gently stroking her hair.

"Ever since Kabuto-Sensei left indefinitely I've had to take up his duties," she mumbled and he raised an eyebrow.

"Kabuto left?"

She seemed to stiffen. "Didn't I tell you?"

She had not. In fact she hadn't sent him a letter in months. Before he could bring up the moot point he was shouting at Akamaru. The dog had pushed his way into the bedroom. Sakura was sure to panic but he was glad when she didn't even notice, kissing him instead. Everything that had been pent up inside him for months was released and all his doubts erased. He loved Sakura. When they finally broke apart and he gazed into her eyes he was convinced she felt it too.

Akamaru wandered back, looking dreary again. It seems that sleeper dart was still taking effect. He couldn't help but smile when he curled up at their feet. "You just wanted to make sure that fucker was dead didn't you."

Sakura got down on the floor, petting Akamaru and watching him with the same concentration she reserved for patients. She was so smart...

"He got hit with a sleeper dart on the way here," he explained. She cooed, cuddling into Akamaru.

"Poor Akamaru..." she said soothingly. It warmed Kiba right to his bones and he couldn't help but kneel on the floor to cup her face.

"I've just caught you at a bad time haven't I?" he murmured, gently brushing his thumb against her cheek.

She smiled softly. "The worst."

When he leaned over to kiss her again she pulled back before taking a deep breath. "Can you leave? I need to finish the autopsy."

He tensed. "It's a dead body Sakura. You've got all the time in the world."

They hadn't seen each other in months. If she wasn't willing to make time, something was wrong.

"This is my first serious autopsy," she pushed. "So please..."

She was breaking his heart...

"Whatever," he growled. She could put off the damn autopsy if she wanted. He made for the door, Akamaru hot on his heels. Furious, he wished Sakura would chase after him. She didn't.

**...**

Sakura was frozen at the window until Kiba disappeared from the street. Her heart was a cataclysm, thumping incessantly against her chest. It was an outer body experience when she finally moved. She ran straight to Sasuke. In complete abandon she flung herself into his arms, burying her head against his neck. He gathered her up and held her close. In the purity of her relief she discovered it wasn't a case of never wanting to let Sasuke go. She just couldn't.

**...**

"_Kabuto. You have returned."_

"_Yes my Lord I-"_

"_Where is Sasuke?"_

"_He refused escort my Lord."_

"_..."_

"_He-"_

"_You're lying."_

"_I assure you. He made the decision to stay in Konoha. He claimed he will return by his own means."_

"_Why did he disobey a direct order?"_

_"He choose to forsake everything... for a girl."_


	12. Part I: Chapter XII

**Sell Out**

**Part I: Chapter XII  
**

* * *

"_Away you go to war,  
Lost in a foreign land.  
Cast out wicked ways-  
My love, take a stand._

**...**

**Konoha Western Barracks **

"Hello Kiba."

He doesn't return the greeting but regardless she took her seat in the bustling cafeteria. There had been an influx of fresh farmed spinach and everyone was ecstatic at the menu addition of the green, leafy vegetable. Kiba looks none too pleased, pushing the broth around his bowl admissibly.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. It wasn't a good time," she apologises again. It even sounded pathetic to her.

He runs a hand through his brown, shaggy hair. "I haven't been on leave in 6 months... shouldn't it always be a good time?"

He is piercing clairvoyance. "You're letters have been slower. In fact I haven't gotten one in three months. Only so much of that was the post."

She found his hand without resistance but it is not as warm as she remembered.

"I've been really swamped at the hospital," she explains. He seemed unimpressed until emotional appeal, "I missed you..."

"Yeah..." He accepts her, taking up a spoon with the other hand and digging in. By the end of lunch he was roaring with laughter and beaming ear to ear.

When she left she had to sprint past Akamaru patrolling outside. The dog smelt her guilt, barking fiercely.

**...**

_I know you must leave,  
But darling I beg you-  
Come home someday, please."_

_**-Old Konoha folk song**_

**...**

**Earlier that morning**

Sasuke's was addictively warm. Since Kiba and Akamaru left she had remained in Sasuke's arms, letting his steady presence calm her. Truthfully though her heart hadn't stopped pounding but for an entirely separate reason from fear. On her back he traced intricacy, making pleasurable jolts rack her body until slowly she looked into his eyes. Chest to chest and nose to nose she was mere inches from his lips. He boldly cupped the back of her head with the clear intention of closing that miniscule distance.

However, he didn't move and it took her a moment to realise he was waiting on her. He revoked all power, letting her decide what she wanted. It felt like a life sentence when she leaned in. Without thought and bar consequence she kissed him.

He took her gentle uncertainty with unwavering purpose. She became consumed as he deepened the kiss and possessively pressed her into the bed. It was completely different from Kiba whose kisses she avoided. She craved Sasuke's weight above her, his hard kisses and skilled touch.

That morning she pretended they were the only two people in the world and nothing else mattered.

...

**Western Barracks**

"You tell him to go!"

_Nobody here wants you._

"Why me?!"

_Why fight for them? _

"He's your future wife's best-friend! That's why!"

_They want you dead._

Naruto tries to tune out the demon in his ear but mostly the dark words of his 'comrades'. He had been ordered to the barracks, making the other soldiers uneasy. Naruto had gotten used to their scathing looks and comments; he just never quiet understood how they thought he couldn't hear them.

"Fine!"

Kiba blurs his peripheral. Kiba probably hated him more than anyone else in the village and feared him just the same. What at least made Naruto partly admire Kiba was that he never showed any of this when they spoke. He would not be scared, never clout by a complex rage relating to the demon fox but mostly Naruto's close relationship with Sakura.

"We've taken a vote," Kiba said evenly. "You can do your service outside."

_Kill him!_

Naruto holds his head in agony, fiercely denying the demon fox. "I have orders to wait in the barracks," he half growled. His head felt bloated, pressure unbearable.

"Then wait outside. It's still the barracks," Kiba counters. "If not... well you know what."

_Killthemallkillthemallkillth emallkillthemallkillthemall_

It is incessant, scratched into the back of his head, burned into his soul. The demon foxes poisonous being, repeating from day one: _Killthemallkillthemallkillth emallkillthemallkillthemall_

"Oi Naruto!"

He is losing control. _Killthemallkillthemallkillth emallkillthemallkillthemall_

Naruto snarls, "Shutup!Shutup!Shutup!"

His outburst causes comrades to jump back, everyone drawing weapons. If they attacked... the demon fox would definitely retaliate. Naruto stumbles outside to the cold, collapsing against a wall. He steadied his breathing thinking _Sasuke would never tell me to leave_. _Sakura would kick anyone's ass who tried to make me_. Finally he thought of Iruka-Sensei, away on some mission that was trying to keep _peace_. Something kind, something he was always trying desperately to be.

His small handful of important people grounded him. The fox returned to murmuring bloodlust.

...

**Sakura's house **

"We shouldn't..."

Sakura shies away from Sasuke, only to moan when he kisses her exposed neck. She squeezes her eyes shut, guilt picking at her stomach and making her feel sick. She had seen Kiba and after a completely selfish morning of pure instinct she could no longer entertain the idea that this was right. What she is doing with Sasuke is wrong. She was engaged. She was cheating.

But she couldn't stop...

"I'm so confused," she breathes, pressing against Sasuke and claiming his lips. He massages his tongue against hers, making her rub her thighs together in shame. He was an incredible kisser and it was terrifying to realise that didn't completely satisfy her.

"Do you like me?" she murmurs against his lips. She is searching for reassurance, some hapless justification. Not sure it would change anything.

It was something he could no longer ignore. "I'm leaving for Oto."

She found herself turning away. _That's not what I asked_, her silent retort. His blunt reply had her feeling a hot anger, the delusional betrayal of a mirage.

"Come on," he coaxes, kissing the uncovered skin of her back. He tugs at her left shirt sleeve to give her shoulder the same treatment. "It's not like you didn't know it was coming."

It is difficult to form a coherent reply when he is doing _that_. Her anger felt foolish, Sasuke would become nothing but a passing memory. His lap is accommodating, arms protective. She let herself get wrapped up in him once more.

That is until he spoke seriously between kisses, "You should break it off with Kiba."

Again, she was feeling a tranquil fury that only intensified when he continued. "You obviously don't love him."

What right did he have to comment with such moral superiority? His suggestion was cold and without an ounce of feeling. She retorted bitterly, "What would you know?"

"I know you don't love him enough to be loyal," he said crassly and the damage detonated like a bomb. She needed to hold up the mirror.

"What about you?" she half-growled. "You have a girlfriend."

He was no different from her. He was cheating as well. All she had gotten out of him was the name 'Karin', everything else fiercely guarded. She found it mind-bending he could shred apart her love life without sharing his own. His jaw tensed irritably.

"Well?" she pushes.

"Well what?" he snaps back.

She'd had enough, pulling away from him. She gasps when he slipped his hand into hers, interlacing their fingers but most importantly keeping her with him. "I'm not good with this talking stuff... so give me a moment."

His earnest tone earns him enough time to gather everything together. "I want you to be happy and he doesn't make you happy. When I'm gone I want the picture of you in my head to be smiling."

Honesty isn't such a radical request, something she needed this entire time. Is she happy with Kiba? Was Sasuke an escape? She is still confused but hearing Sasuke speak so openly is giving her the courage to face herself.

"It's your relationship though and if you really do love him then what we have is only in the way," he adds. "You need to make a decision. But know I will respect whatever choice you make."

Sakura finds herself squeezing his hand just that little bit tighter.

...

**Konoha Western Barracks **

"You lying bastard!"

Kiba joins the jeering when the fight brakes out. Tatsuya and Matsuda had been at each others throat since wind country, brawl inevitable.

"You cheated!"

A lost game of cards would be a flimsy excuse to superiors; both men guaranteed punishment as Tatsuya buried his fist into Matsuda's jaw. In the midst of bets being called Kiba hears something disagreeable.

"Speaking of cheating. Your girl."

Kiba spun on the older soldier instantly, "My wife heard a rumour that the demon fox has been visiting your fiancée a lot lately."

"So?" Kiba's eyes narrow dangerously before returning to the fight. "He always does."

"At three in the morning?"

Kiba bit the inside of his cheek. It is a stress response and as of late the metallic taste of blood had become ever constant. He barely has a handle on his convulsing thoughts when everyone in the barrack tenses. A chill spread from his lower back, to his shoulders, with the ominous presence of some archaic, clawed hand ready to cut him to ribbons.

"No!"

Even with only a week's worth of training any ninja would be able to sense this vile chakra, heck villagers without chakra potential would feel it. The demon fox was bleeding out of its host and close to Konoha it was boarder line nightmare. Kiba ran to the window, expecting bubbling red, oozing chakra.

All he finds is Naruto craning his head around _equally_ spooked. Something was frightening the demon fox. He faced back, ready to warn the others.

But there is nothing. The barracks are completely empty. Absent of people, void of sound. He stared down the stretch of vacant tables, his eyes straining into negative space. Whitewash became a drain, a painful glimmer.

"What the..."

He had to get back to Naruto. In doing so he turns directly into the horned face of a curse-seal demon.

**...**

**Konoha Hospital, Surgery **

The hospital steadily stacked patients, indiscriminate. Tonight she isn't just dealing with freshly injured soldiers but an overflow of civilians, innocent women and little children. Sakura tried to piece together the disjointed situation, the frantic dying whispers, the shrill screams, the begging prayers of her patients.

_Oto. Breech. Fire. Attack. _

She fiercely pours chakra into gaping wounds, knitting skin, setting bone. It seemed that for every patient she cleared, three more were rolled in to take their place. After stabilizing a four year old with third degree burns she moves toward the next batch that her superior is hovering over.

"Get her out!"

The bark of her superior drew her attention, thinking a family member had run into the operation theatre. Instead the woman is pointing at _her_. Shocked, Sakura stops, attention diverting to the critical patient her superior seems to be shielding. A dirty mess of brown hair peaked through bloody sheets...

"Kiba..."

Everything is dissolving around her, the chaos of surgery becoming a soaked canvas of blood darker than the clan markings that streaked her dying fiancées face. It is definitely him and she starts screaming. "Kiba!"

"Now," her superior roars. Sakura is grabbed and dragged. She is lead through the weeping wall, chocking on the acidic taste of bile when the surgery door closes on her. Tears pilled at her eyes and the helpless sobs of the people in the waiting room echo in the cavern of her mind. One of her loved ones is dying. A painfully familiar situation...

She didn't do anything for Ino.

Gritting her teeth Sakura banishes the misery threatening to take over. She controls her shaking hands and wiped her moist eyes with a steeled resolve.

She wouldn't be helpless with Kiba. She wasn't going to lose him.

"No!" she snarls, bursting back through the doors. In an instant she is on him, shoving another doctor fumbling to change a scalpel blade, "move."

She doesn't wait for approval, burying her hand into the fan of his chest to kick start cell reanimation. She catches a brief glimpse of her superior who simply gives a stern nod. Sakura will not be spared again, the painful result of her decision to return crystallizing with whatever outcome.

Sakura would try reviving him all night, until her fiancée became just another corpse to haunt her.

**...**

**The West side of Konoha **

There had been a breech, an infantry of Oto Soldiers running riot in the streets. It was a spectacular miscommunication on the barrier squad's part, blind sighted to the sensory types. Many had been lost under a thick veil of genjutsu and the rest to an explosion that set blocks of housing ablaze. The fire had been contained quickly and the remaining Oto dealt with swiftly but Naruto still circled the wreckage. Konoha hadn't been directly hit this badly in a while...

He has to find Sakura. He'd seen Kiba go down, done everything he could to get to him. In the end he'd stayed to hold the enemy off and left him to the medical corps. By the time Naruto got to the hospital though, Sakura was gone.

He finally spots a gentle pink, such a welcomed hue to the blazing flames and blood of the night.

"Sakura!"

He sprints toward her, jumping over the rubble of a general store and almost smacking into her. They became a shell shocked tangle; Naruto squeezing her so tight she can barely breathe. Sakura hardly reacts and he fears she has been like this for a while.

"How's Kiba?" he finally manages.

His stomach drops when she says the one thing he never wants to hear. "Let's go to the hill."

**...**

**The hill**

"How about the one next to Ino's?"

Sakura stared up at the stars numbly, rubbing her hands like she still had the latex gloves, preening her chakra like there was still a chance. She hadn't been able to save him. Everything felt so surreal. So unfair. _Kiba..._

"Sakura?"

The ritual of star choosing was something she was supposed to pass on to her children. How could that ever be possible now? Were there enough stars in the galaxy to account for all her fallen loved ones? Would she and Naruto run out of celestial entities?

"Do you think he would like that one?"

She was only half hearing Naruto. The words flashing through her mind weighting on her perception. _Is death an institution? Am I committed? _

"Sakura?"

_This is war. It needs to end. No more friends. I have but one left. _

"I was thinking I'm going to reserve one."

Sakura turned slowly to face Naruto her thought pattern shattered.

"See that one there," Naruto points to one of the biggest and brightest stars before smiling slightly "That's me."

There was a pause before Sakura slapped him across the face with so much force he veered to the side. Naruto let out a cry of surprise and barely reaches out for her hand when she went to hit him again. "Don't you DARE Naruto!"

He holds his swollen cheek, the pain throbbing.

"Don't you dare Naruto!" Her voice is shrill in the evening air. With her free hand she has a vice grip on his shoulder. Painfully. Desperately. "What are you thinking?!"

He catches his breathing, almost understanding with a quiet whisper. "I didn't mean that I was going to die soon…"

"Then what Naruto!" she hissed. "What did you mean?!"

Silence.

"I just like it is all…"

Hysterically she pulled at her hair before burying her head in her hands. Naruto's words shook her to the core, destroyed whatever shred of happiness remained inside her.

"Don't you dare," she bit out.

_Don't you dare leave me Naruto! _

**...**

"Come on," Sasuke urges. It was torture but he had to stay away from the windows, get back from the doors. He'd spent last night chocking on thick, black smoke and tonight in frantic panic. He wasn't sure what was worse.

It would be over soon though because he could feel Sakura slowly approaching. Her chakra is like the tiny spark on the wick of an extinguished candle. She might be seriously injured coming in that door, she might never make it. "Come on," he pushes to the darkness.

Finally the door creaks open and he contained himself just long enough. After it clicks closed he pulls her into him, searching her body for trauma. Relief washes over him when he doesn't find a single scratch, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Where have you been?"

When she looks up her eyes go right through him. He understands instantly, feeling guilty that he couldn't be there for her anymore. Not the way he wanted to be. They were over.

She had made her decision.

**...**

"_Sakura..."_

"_Call it..."_

"_I'm sorry-"_

"_Call it!" _

"_ID: Kiba Inuzuka, Time of death 22:38 hours. Complications in surgery."_

* * *

_PostCounterClockwise: No one is safe in my twisted mind. Poor Kiba :( _


	13. Part I: Chapter XIII

**Sell Out  
Part I: Chapter XIII**

* * *

"_Konoha is a great nation! We will take the rubble and rebuild, the April invasion will tighten our lines and from the carnage we will attain strength. We Kohoha citizens are an unrelenting force and our pain from this night will be magnified onto our enemy!"_

...

Danzo believes that emotions breed weakness. Therefore he promotes objectivity throughout his army, his citizens and his very being. The detachment he strives for is compromised when he lays eyes on the waste of the breech. The site is a wreckage of support beams, stone brick and limbs. Emotion he meticulously deemed unknown twists inside him and snaps away at the barbed twine surrounding his heart until emotion is freed in aching laceration.

He feels satisfaction.

Oto were going to suffer this attack, out manoeuvred to the point of eradication. Danzo's smile is all teeth.

The sun is rising.

...

"_The traitors will fall!"_

...

**Konoha Graveyard **

Sakura shrinks into her dead corner of the graveyard. She has impossibly deemed slivered lines of the Konoha memorial to still be living with its freshly turned earth and pungent bouquets. Her disturbed feet scuffle the firm ground and fingers wear at already fading epitaphs. Decades impose autonomy. So she is waiting.

Then a heart wrenching wail rips through the rows, gathers up an unnatural pricking in her ears. It is the most miserable and horrid sound she has ever heard and immediately she can feel a lump forming in her throat at such projected sadness. The crying has her seeking out the source through new tracks like a sleepwalker.

A quivering body was hunched over Kiba's grave. The huge mass whimpers, bleeding out into the dirt.

"Akamaru..."

The dog continued to wail, weakly digging his paws into the soft ground beneath. Sakura carefully pulled the wire out of his neck, signs of his capture and attempted domestication by Oto soldiers. Gently she channels chakra into his muck and blood matted fur to try and alleviate his suffering.

When he cries again she realises his body could heal but the suffering would never be over.

"There you are little buddy!"

The words startle her and she spins on Kiba's father with his painfully familiar grin. For a moment it seemed like everything could be okay as long as sorrow didn't edge into that beam. He sat on Akamaru's other side. "Been looking all over for you little one," He addresses before brushing against Sakura's arm in recognition. "Oh and hello Sakura, figured you wouldn't have left yet."

He finally turns to the grave and raises a mocking eyebrow. "And hello Kiba! See you haven't moved either."

Sakura begins to feel chocked up at the morbid joke, the glaringly perishable nature of a father's fake smile.

"I think you really need to consider what you've done now," he says sternly. "They're really tearing into me at home with the nagging."

He raises his hands in defeat. "Who's on my side now? You've left me in a house full of women!"

There is a stretch of silence. Sakura's lip is quivering as Akamaru continues to weep for his best-friend, loyally trying to reunite in the confusion of death. Kiba's father finally rests his hands atop the stone bearing his child's name. "My boy... my boy..."

His smile is broken and it always will be, heavy tears sliding down his face. "M-my son... my w-wonderful son."

The air is left to crying and the weak muffle of paws digging.

...

**Earlier that day **

It is just after the funeral that she draws out Sasuke's Katana. The blade is ferociously sharp and she shutters at her own reflection. Her bloated mind tries to focus on the make, the age and the properties of the metal before her. She screams out for a distraction in academia. She will take refuge in detail.

She kissed Sasuke on the day Kiba was killed. She let Sasuke touch her on the day she let her fiancée die. The blade chinks to the floor when her nails dig into her arms. Everywhere Sasuke had her is dragged along until welts of blood seep through torn skin. Incessantly she scratches away, trying to punish herself from the sin.

She is filthy.

...

**Konoha Clinic **

The village is gripped in a desperate return to normality. The patients in the clinic not only seek out treatment from Sakura but also example. They don't want to see someone downtrodden, life hopelessly critiqued through a miserable lens. They want the image of the dedicated doctor, unbeatable soldier and manically supportive citizens that has been fed to them through propaganda.

They want glory.

Sakura's station is listless routine. A girl that jabs needles, winds bandages and sets bone in a state of catatonia. She has become a mass producing machine line, unfeeling and efficient. She operates fluidly in the steady gears of war, an unfeeling facilitator of more death. The job of a doctor isn't to save people but send them back out to doom, hoping they will drag a few others with them. Her entire being has been compromised.

All is futile. It can never be the same again.

...

**Sakura's house **

"How strong are you?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Sakura merely tilted her head at him in interest. It is impossible to reply but he commends the fact she is talking. So he answers anyway.

"I am as strong as I need to be."

"Very philosophical," she decides evenly. There is an awkward silence before she continues. "Do you have a five gauge chakra?

"More like four."

She seems to sigh. "That's not a lot. Naruto is a wind based element though. What are you?"

"Fire. If you are comparing me to Naruto may I remind you that is entirely unfair."

He imagines her laughing.

...

**The hill**

Sakura found solace when Naruto dodged her left hook. She could stay broken down in her depression or she could fight back. When his fist came at her she instinctually backed up. Her body was choosing to fight, soon her mind would follow.

"Tell Sasuke Tuesday okay. That's when we leave and it won't seem suspicious," Naruto said. He wasn't strained by their engagement and spoke easily. "I just have a few things to handle at the barracks. You take him to the Third Hokage memorial close to the gate. I'll take him to Oto from there."

She took a hot swipe at him and clips his left ear. Despite everything that happened the idea of Sasuke leaving still feels her with dread. She discovers quickly that anger will bring nothing but misfortune in combat when Naruto easily knocks her to the ground.

"You need to watch out for retaliation," he said sagely. She watches him for a moment, supposing her last attack left an easy opening.

"If I knocked you out that wouldn't be a problem," she grumbles, extending her hand for him to help her up. He chuckles.

"You'd have to punch me pretty hard."

Speaking with Naruto is able to ground her to some recollection of self when she sticks her tongue out at him. "Maybe I would just use a sleeper hold on you."

"Maybe," he nods before cracking his shoulder. Sakura centers on the concept, thinking with her medical orientated mind as questions are dug up.

"How does that judo-chop-stun thing work anyway? Where do you hit?"

Naruto goes behind her easily finding the pressure point in the neck. It was where she figured it would be and nods in accomplishment. She considers for a moment before asking him how to roundhouse kick again. Naruto obliges her, happy to help her figure out her frustrations in this new way. They start sparing again with Naruto correcting her punching technique and footing every so often. They both end in a panting exhaustion.

"Nice fight," Naruto compliments.

Sakura drains her water bottle before turning on him. "Oh shut up. We both know your just humouring me."

Naruto gave a sheepish grin and Sakura rubbed her neck gingerly.

...

**Sakura's house**

"What level is your mark?"

Sasuke tilts his head at her question. "Surprised you know there are levels for the blessing. Level two."

"Blessing?" She almost spits the word. Those swirling black commas that had been bitten into his neck were no 'blessing'. They were an indelible stain on humanity, twisted and bloodthirsty. A sick fascination drives her to trace the skin around it, curiously accounting for everything with feather touch.

"When did you get it-"

She gasps when he wrenches her hand away. His mouth is pulled back in a snarl, eyes furious. "Don't play with me. You said you don't want me so don't tease."

He didn't even want her to touch him. She shakes her head in confusion, stung by the misunderstanding. "I wasn't-"

"I want my question." He cut off and he is without mercy. "Is it over between you and Kiba?"

It pierces right at her heart, makes her fist the soft fabric of her skirt in sweaty palms. Slowly she nods.

His expression softens but he does not back down. "Is it because of me?"

She doesn't have to answer that question for him to know. She quivers when he slips his hand into hers and his only intention is to offer support and understanding. She stays by his side as they both begin to speak deeper.

...

Hazily she tries to grasp Sasuke growing up in Oto. Some of the things he tells her are awful; the experimentations, the sacrificing war tactics and the poor standard of living to name a few. Why does he want to go back to that? The way Sasuke speaks about Orochimaru is disapproving but he still maintains his actions are necessary. She runs her hands through her hair in frustration.

"Why do you stay with him?"

...

Sasuke feels like his mind has been stuffed with cotton. He is lightheaded and unstable, watching the way she backs into the wall. He feels sick. He never wanted to scare her; he can't handle fear from her.

"You were the one that killed the North, West, East and South generals..."

The realisation makes him swell up defensively. "I kill monsters. They were monsters."

But Sakura thinks he is a monster. She heard the news, how heinously they had all been killed. Her eyes are wide and terrified and he is almost reduced to begging.

"They killed my family..."

He wanted her to understand him. After becoming so close with her he began feeling guilty that he wasn't letting her completely in. The decision to finally tell her what had been driving the majority of his life was selfish. She had become distant from him since the invasion and instead of respecting that he tried to pull her back. He watched her reproach as she sunk to her knees.

In spite of showing her his bloodied hands, his cruel nature and revealing how he assassinated key figures in her countries government, she still hugs him.

...

"_The reason we grieve is because we love. My mother told me that. Mourning is never ending for the compassionate heart. Grief is a gift. It is proof of someone who has truly loved."_

_..._

* * *

PostCounterClockwise: Hello everyone, just a heads up that this is the second to last chapter of part one and that I am going to be changing my penname soon. The concept in the last quote is important to me. When my grandad died I was devastated. I got through it by realising it hurt so badly because of how deeply I loved and admired him. Then I was just glad. Hope none of you reading this are going through something similar :(


	14. Part I: Chapter XIV

**Important: **_So this is the last chapter of Part I and likely the entire story. A lot of things will depend on me continuing and right now my biggest issue is that the story is a behemoth and is about to earn the M rating. My motivation and confidence in my writing abilities are wavering due to upcoming content. I am going to take __**TWO MONTHS**__ to decide and if by some miracle I do have the guts to continue the structure in Part II will focus on Sasuke, dealing with his memories exclusively. _

_Anyway, thank you to all the wonderful reviewers. Each of you has contributed to the speed of updates, my resolve to stick with the story and the quality of the writing. A special thanks to those who have added me as a favourite author. That is an ultimate praise that I really don't deserve. So without further ado, here it is: _

* * *

**Sell Out  
Part I: Chapter XIV**

* * *

"_Hello Ino, it's me again. I've been a mess lately and asking for your guidance. I was confused. That's all changed now."_

**...**

Sakura pressed her hand against Ino's memorial in the early dawn. The strong smell of smoke still hung in the air. Somewhere Konoha was burning.

**...**

"_I know what to do."_

**...**

**Sakura's House**

Sasuke wasn't able to sleep, stirring restlessly. He was heading back to Oto the next night, well more like that night considering it was about 4 in the morning. He should be resting but a part of him knew he was missing an opportunity and that always made him alert. Usually he was ruthless when it came to taking chances and a part of him wanted to take one with Sakura. Why couldn't he just go into her room and kiss her? He was leaving and would never come back. What had been complicated between them could be made simple; they could just have one night...

Then he kicked himself for thinking such a thing. Sakura wasn't like that and the last thing he wanted was hurt her. He culled the insidious thought but was prepared for it to surface again, as had been the pattern for the last couple of hours. He focused on the route they had picked out and the times and dates Sakura had relayed to him from Naruto. By Friday he would be home.

Hearing the door knob turn actually caught him off guard, a testament to how distracted his mind was. He sat up, watching Sakura's silhouette slip by the window. He felt deluded in his own excitement.

_She_ came to _him_.

"Sasuke..."

He doesn't get ahead of himself and waited for questions about tonight, her apprehension and fear. Her hands were cupped in her lap and he focused on her thin, delicate wrists.

"Are you happy?" she finally whispered. There was a knot of pain in her voice, a desperate bite. It blew him away. She didn't want him to leave but would never allow herself to beg. Her eyes said it all though, wide and crystallized in sadness.

She gasped when he pushed her down and lay on top of her. For once in his life he ran on pure impulse, ignoring rationalisation and self-imposed dignity. Soon they are both calm and Sasuke thinks there is no better feeling in the world than her warm cheek pressed against his.

"Thank you," he murmured. For healing him, listening to him or awarding him such freedom he wasn't sure. He just knows he owed Sakura everything.

She stayed stiff in his arms because they both understood that getting closer could only hurt more but Sasuke wrapped his arms around her tight, clinging to synthetic notions. He just wanted to pretend.

**...**

Sasuke packed up his things, checking over the supplies he had been given meticulously. Naruto had managed an entire stack of paper bombs and Sasuke carefully attached them to his kunai. He wasn't planning on using them but it was always better to be prepared. He felt like his old self taking stock of weaponry.

He stood, sparing a glance to Sakura. She had a white knuckle grip around his Katana, eyes trained to the floor. He went over to her and she seemed to snap out of her tense state. He held out his hand for the katana.

"Ready."

She nodded but kept a strong grip on the hilt of his sword.

**...**

Sasuke walked with muffled steps, used his stealth to scale buildings in a flash. Sakura gave up on tracking him and counted on his keen eyesight to seek her out. They stuck to the route, avoiding heavy lanterns in favour of the black fringe, steadily trying to reach beyond the gate. She had gone over everything a million times but the odd noise and unfamiliar shadow still unnerved her.

**Main Gate of Konoha **

She pinned herself to the wall, careful not to shout when something touched her elbow. It was Sasuke and his touch was an indication he was still there. Selfishly she wanted him to steady her and lead her by the hand through the upcoming chaos.

"Go," he whispered.

She took a deep breath and started to move but they didn't even make it seven steps. "Freeze!"

Immediately they were hit with the floodlight. Sakura began to shake at her exposure; dozens of ninja were perched above them as her eyes darted around frantically. They had been spotted. It was over.

"Lower your weapons!"

She turned to Sasuke, blank face sizing up the hoard of opponents. She wondered what he was really feeling at that moment because all she could comprehend was panic.

"I think we should just do what they say!" she shouted, raising her hands in the air.

Sasuke replied by unsheathing his katana.

**...**

Sasuke was a spectacular lie. He had more chakra than he had let on and an impressive combat style. His speed was intimidating and she wondered if the ninja could see him coming or if it was impossible for the naked eye. His reflexes were amazing, no sooner had guards started a formation than he was countering it. It was like he could see the attack before it happened. He had already taken out three quarters of the guards, Sakura losing count when she started bolting. It was a disaster. Everything spoiled.

She dived behind a cart when Sasuke shot fire into the air. It was immediately doused in a tidal wave of water. Sasuke tilted his head when a dozen ninja splashed down from the gate.

"Surrender!" was growled. "You're fire-jutsu are useless."

Sakura broke out into goose bumps when Sasuke laughed darkly. Next thing a bolt of electricity was shot at the water pooling around the guards feet and they screamed before collapsing. Another crackle of electricity sounded but this time it was Sakura screaming. One of the ninja hit her with water, firing her back into the wall. It was a clever move as another electric attack would conduct and kill her as well. Sasuke stopped his attack, instead driving his katana through the man's chest.

**...**

"No please!"

Sakura wanted to vomit when she looked into the young man's terrified eyes. His fear was palpable, spreading right through her consciousness. He was begging for his life. "Don't kill me!"

She could barely look at Sasuke, towering above the kneeling boy. "I hate killing people," he reasoned quietly. "But no one can follow me. Besides... you've seen Sakura."

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, only hearing a neck snap and a corpse thumping gently to the floor. She imagined that boy was just ready to start a family of his own. That he had a nice girlfriend and sweet mother that loved him very much. Now he was dead.

"Are you okay?"

She was in a sea of bodies. Nothing could ever be okay. Sasuke's hand against her cheek felt numb. She shuttered at the thought of thick, wet blood dripping from his fingers.

Everything was ruined.

"Sakura... come with me."

She slowly opened her eyes and looked into his concerned face. Sasuke spoke gently and nothing like a killer. But then again hadn't he always been a boy with his back against the wall? She was still shaking, trying to hold on to the image of him in her head that was darker than crude oil.

"They're gone but who knows," he murmured. "Maybe someone has seen you. Come with me to Oto. Let me protect you."

When he helped her to her feet she was undoubting. Sasuke had just proven he would fiercely defend her. He must really care about her. Everything seemed so surreal, trapped in an unforgiving loop.

There was no going back.

"Sasuke..."

She tugged on his hand, interlacing their fingers. He stilled when she brushed through his dark hair and tilted her face towards his. She was decidedly courageous when she kissed him, taking him away from sentience and self control. It was regrettably passionate, remorsefully fulfilled. She couldn't deny such a deep attraction, such maddening desire for this soldier from Oto.

She hoped some part of him could appreciate that they were both trapped, even from the very beginning.

They finally broke away, breathing deeply and holding each other close. Sakura tried to breathe thinking of trust, lust and a few other misplaced favours. Mostly she concentrates on pulling back, comfortably placing her arms at his shoulders.

He is almost smiling. And she is truly lost.

"Ready?" he asked, eyes falling to the gate and freedom.

The irony should be painful when she agrees, "Ready."

In one swift motion she pressed on the pressure point in the back of Sasuke's neck, catching him completely off guard. His face ripped to confusion, eyes reflecting hurt. She kept her expression impassive, not missing the way his eyes flashed briefly in ugly betrayal.

He whispered her name in disbelief before falling away from her, "Sakura?"

Sasuke collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Sakura waited for back-up.

**...**

**3 weeks earlier: Hokage tower. **

Danzo stared out at the destruction as rubble faded into obscurity. 39 hours since the wall had been breached and nothing left but a prominent scar.

"Hokage Danzo?"

People were always calling his name, in dedication, spite, prayer or a dying memoriam. He turned to his secretary with glum determination. "Yes?"

"A girl is here to see you."

He sighed. He had been hoping for news, good or bad. He only had the prospect of more destitution. "Send her away."

He narrowed his eyes when the aforementioned girl pushed her way in regardless. He sat, studying how she was barely there. Her body was thin but the real tragedy was in her eyes. They reflected loss and suffering. Then there was a spark of unwavering strength and he realised he hadn't given enough credit.

"Sasuke," she said plainly.

He was calculating, unsure of how to respond. What some of his soldiers thought of as gossip he knew to be true. Sasuke, Orochimaru's vicious pet. "What about him?"

Tactical, assertive and hardline, Danzo had always been the type to cut straight to the point. It became apparent so was the girl.

"I can give him to you."

Danzo stood abruptly and the girl moved to sit down. He had to clarify. "Sasuke the Sound assassin?"

"Yes. He's hiding here in the village."

Oddly, the Hokage felt his body relax. He supposed an unmeasurable strain had been lifted as a ghost that had haunted his peripheral was finally going to be exorcised. This young woman had just bought him an unimaginable gift, victory danced in his palm.

"Wonderful."

**...**

"Nice work Sakura."

Sakura ignored the soldiers call, focusing on Sasuke's unmoving body.

"Nice work? She fucking saved our asses."

It had to end. She looked up at the night sky, seeking out each person she had lost in conflict. And Naruto... if she didn't act she was going to lose Naruto. His suicidal words still revibrated from the hill. She'd be cold in the ground before she'd visit his grave, before she counted him up in those heavens. The decision to turn in Sasuke had solidified with Kiba's death and it was as if all the nerves in her body had been severed to eternal numbness. Since the April Invasion she'd fed Sasuke the wrong return date, then led him to the ambush and delivered the final blow so he could be dealt with in interrogation. Anything that happened after that was inconsequential.

Her feelings for Sasuke had crashed into duplicity. She wasn't struggling with herself anymore, finally committed.

Her war was over.

**...**

**25 km away, Naruto's house**

Naruto wrapped himself up in his covers. He had always been a sound sleeper, especially when he had big plans for the next day. His dreams are vivid thrills; they explode with loud noise and bright colour as his mind digs for a crisp comprehension of detail.

Tomorrow night he was taking Sasuke home. He hoped Sakura told him as soon as possible so that Sasuke had something to look forward too. He didn't want to say goodbye to his friend but there would always be dreams.

Nothing could compare to a real life happy ending.

**...**

**Cell Block 11C **

Tatsuya hauled the new prisoner in with piqued interest. He looked no different than the rest of the Oto scum, another dog that would end howling. He clenched his teeth when he noticed the curse seal, meditating on the difficulties the mark always imposed. He could only speculate why Danzo had a direct line to the case and tried to estimate the pain threshold that would coerce whatever vital information.

He stalked over when the prisoner stirred.

**...**

"_Welcome to interrogation."_

**...**

**End of Part I**


End file.
